The Potter not only makes the pot, he heals it as well.

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“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Psalm 147:3 New International Version

My name is Larissa, and I’m a cracked pot. (insert laughter here). But seriously.

My parents were atheists and divorced when I was very young. I was raised mostly by my alcoholic mother, and even though I used to periodically see my father, to this day he barely acknowledges that I exist.

I was a lost and broken little girl who felt unloved, abused, ashamed, and unworthy. I was broken. My heart and spirit was broken by a father who has never seemed to love me and a controlling mother who took advantage of me mentally and emotionally. I rebelled against being controlled, and I sought love and comfort in physical relationships.

I had become a broken shell.

I first came to Christ when I was 17, out of the head knowledge that I didn’t want to go to hell. But like seeds that “fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil,” (Mark 4:5) I fell away because of trouble, persecution and for the lure of earthly pleasures.

In my early 30’s I was still wounded and broken. Even though I found a husband who loved me, warts and all, and a mother and father-in-law who were better parents to me than my own could ever be. I was unable to heal on my own.

“I came to the Lord. He applied His healing balm to my ever present wounds. He started putting me back together. ‘Oh Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.’” 
Isaiah 64:8 New International Version

Much to my surprise, He didn’t put me back together like most of us would have tried to put back together this broken flower pot. You know, gluing the pieces snugly back together trying to hide the cracks and repairing the chinks in the pottery. God had allowed the cracks and missing pieces to remain, to form an intricate pattern of love, grace and mercy. A pattern that allows His light to shine, to show the way to others who may also be in the need of an expert potter.

Copyright Larissa Odell