I imagine myself as a beautiful vase setting on the mantel for all to see. New and perfect God placed me in the home of my mother and father to care for me and keep me safe. It didn't take long for the first crack to appear. I was dusted off and life continued on. Several years later another crack appeared. This one deeper running from top to bottom. Not long after that more smaller cracks appear yet the vase held together for another few years. Then I shatter into a million pieces. There was no one in this world that could put me back together. I was scooped up and put back on the mantel for safe keeping. Over time my pieces were knocked off the mantel and eventually no one bothered to pick me up. At just fifteen I lay scattered about the ground having been trampled on without a thought.
It wasn't an easy decision to trust God, after all I had been through I had many reasons not to trust. Just before my sixteenth birthday I decided that if there was hope to but bandaged up and be made new I just couldn't pass it up. Through my decision to be baptized through Christ, I received so much more than healing. I have a father and a family and now not only have I been made new but I have been filled up!
Don't get me wrong I have been bumped and cracked over and over. I have even been shattered once again. But God scoops me up and lovingly puts me back together. Some might think that the scars that have been left on me are ugly but when I look in the mirror I see what appears to be the most beautiful hand etched markings that only my creator can make. I started as a simple beautiful vase but now I am the most magnificent hand crafted vase that you could ever imagine. So today I celebrate the day that I was born again, twenty years ago! I wouldn't change a thing!