Chipped Plate

I use my mother’s china on special occasions.
It was the same special china that was used for all of our holiday dinners.
It was the delicate china with the tiny green floral pattern around the rim.
The rim that was etched in gold; the gold that seemed so real when I was a girl.

My mother allowed me to set the table when I was old enough to do that on my own.
There were always the instructions to be very careful with her good dishes.
I carried them to the table as if I was transporting an egg across the room.
In essence I was, and the care I took to carry them meant that I never broke even one.

The dishes were always in the china closet.
She had a set that accommodated twelve people.
She had many serving dishes as well.
I always loved the gravy boat the best; it was all in one piece but looked like two.

When my mother died, her dishes were packed away.
A fifteen-year-old girl does not think ahead to her own married life.
A fifteen-year-old girl does not realize the importance of an heirloom.
The dishes remained packed away for many years.

When I was married and we had our own house, I thought of the dishes.
It wasn’t until we bought our own dining room set that I could consider having the dishes.
I remember the day I unpacked them.
There was a flood of memories from a simpler time.

With my country, Shaker home, nice china seems a bit out of place.
Pottery and quilts are more my style.
Hoosier cabinets and crocks abound.
Yet I still have my mother’s china and I still use the dishes for special occasions.

My daughters loved to handle the dishes and set the table.
They knew I trusted them when they were allowed to get the dishes out of the hutch.
They loved to get out the serving dishes and the gravy boat was their favorite as well.
The circle of life.

One dish has a chip on the side.
A piece of the gold rim is missing on the edge of one platter.
I was the one that chipped it, years later, after I had been so careful.
I hit one dish against the other as I put it in the dishwasher.

I happened to have that plate at my place at our Thanksgiving meal.
It was important that I had that particular one.
The plate is still beautiful though it is marred.
Marred by my own doing.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill, and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like white-washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:23-28)

People with a fine appearance on the outside.
People with an unclean condition on the inside.
Jesus had scathing remarks for such people.
Jesus uses a strong word, woe, when He talks to them.

Woe is a word full of meaning.
It is a denunciation of certain behavior.
It is a foreshadowing of God’s wrath upon sinners.
It is an expression of grief and indignation.

Jesus does not want the appearance of holiness.
Jesus wants the real thing.
Jesus does not want the appearance of cleanliness.
Jesus wants the person to be truly clean.

We are God’s chipped plates.
We all have chips and scratches, dings and dents; we are misshapen and flawed.
Sometimes, those flaws are from things we have done to ourselves.
In the eyes of God, we are not damaged goods.

God does not create junk.
God does not make mistakes.
God places His image inside each of us.
That image is marred by sin.

Our imperfections are not hidden from God.
They are not hidden, but they are redeemed.
Redeemed by the One who took the nails in his hands and feet.
The One whose beautiful scars are not imperfections, but signs of Perfect Love.

Love that is bloody.
Love that is bruised and beaten.
Love that destroys death, makes new, redeems, and saves.
Love that is Perfect; the love of God through His son, Jesus.

I like my chipped plate.
My mother’s beautiful china with its imperfection.
The reminder that the inside is more important than the outside.
Knowing that God takes our ugliness and sinfulness and redeems us through Jesus.

Beautiful.
Delicate.
Etched in Red, so that we can walk on streets of Gold.
Perfect in His eyes because we are clothed in Jesus’ righteousness.

Scarred and imperfect now.
Made whole and perfect then.
A chipped plate for God’s glory.
A chipped plate that He redeems.

Simply beautiful.