I have a new addiction. Any and everything Rae Dunn! Seriously! A trip to Home Goods or TJ Max turns into a treasure hunt, scouring the shelves for that perfect score! I hunt the internet looking for new pieces that I don’t yet have in my collection. What is it about her designs that speak so strongly to my heart? It’s really pretty simple. Rae Dunn’s pottery always has an organic, imperfect, almost rustic look. If you are looking for perfect, pristine lines and uniformity, Rae is not your gal!
I believe there is a very simple reason that I’m so drawn to her designs. I feel they are an example of how I view life. I know, I know…sounds like a spiritual lesson is coming, but hear me out.
There is a place for perfection. A need for things to be smooth and so glorious they are rarely used except for special occasions. Like grandma’s china that languishes in the china hutch until a special dinner, getting spruced up for weddings and special events are rare but important times to aim for perfection. Like heading out to that job interview, or meeting the Queen of England. A little polish is definitely required for some positions and situations! (BTW, I’ve never met the Queen. I’m just pretty sure that I’d want to dress up for that one!)
But then there’s the rest of life – messy, unorganized, unplanned. For me, that’s where the beauty of real living is. If you only celebrate the perfect moments, you miss out on the day to day moments that make up the majority of our lives:
- Yay! Tommy used the potty!
- Yay! I didn’t die during my daughter-in-law’s step class!
- Or, my favorite after a particularly challenging day at work – yay! I didn’t hit anybody over the head today!
If we truly believe that God is the potter and we are the clay (which I do, with all my heart) we have to accept that some people are the perfect, neat and tidy cups and some of us are the chunky, a little lopsided I’m-lucky-I-put-pants-on-today kind of cups!
For me, it would be exhausting to try to be the perfect china tea cup. My hair is a mess of curls that will not be tamed, no matter how hard I try. I sometimes say the things I shouldn’t. I’m also pretty sure that the five pounds that has been creeping up on me off and on for the last few years may never truly go away.
Because God uses both the perfect and the imperfect, I prefer accepting the fact that God loves me, warbles and all, and can use me every minute of every day to make someone else’s day beautiful by a simple, crooked smile or help them sigh at the beauty of the sunset while sitting in traffic on the way home from work just by being me. It’s much less exhausting than trying to be the perfect china tea cup all the time!
I find myself taking more deep breaths when I sip my morning coffee from this beautiful “Dream” mug. I sigh as I drink my herbal tea while cradling the gently imperfect cup with the simple word “Create” etched into it. It feels like sitting with an old friend. Comfortable, simple, accepting of me being me.
I’ll be that cup! What about you?
God, thank you for loving me just as I am. Help me always remember that you can use my imperfections to show others your perfect love. Amen
Oh Deanna, you brought tears to my eyes! I believe this too, but it took me a lifetime to get here, after decades of trying to reach a level of perfection that was never intended for my life. It’s so exhausting to be “on” all the time, to be
constantly unhappy and self-loathing because you just can’t become the person you THINK you’re supposed to be. And then one day, when you are so tired that you just give up, you find your place where you meet God’s grace and mercy head on! You discover that you were okay the whole time…that God had already uniquely equipped you for your own life. The person you are is exactly the person you were meant to be – complete with a few extra pounds, the thinning hair, the propensity to tell the same story more than once. And if you look closely, with the same forgiveness that you would freely grant to ANYONE else, you see the real person that God created: the encourager, the loyal friend, the devoted mother and wife, the person who can’t resist comforting children – even if they are not yours, and even the person who notices and glories in the sound of a breeze blowing through the tops of the trees. Thank you Dee! I needed this today!
You are so dear and brought tears to my eyes! I’m so glad you were touched!
Amen! Here’s to cracked pots!
Yes!