Once there was a great king who ruled justly. This king would love making pots. Out of all the pots he had, he separated them into three sets of pots in his palace – one set was filled with gold, the second set was filled with wine and the third with water.
The sets with the gold were kept in his treasury room. The sets with the wine were kept in the royal dining room and the sets with water were kept in his kitchen.
One day, all the three sets of pots were moved together into a room and they began to argue with each other as to who was the better set of pots.
The first set began to say “We hold the most precious treasure of all, therefore. we are the king’s favorite set.”
The second set nodded their heads in denial and stated, “We greatly disagree with your statement, for we hold all of the king’s enjoyment and pleasure, therefore, we are the king’s favorite set.”
The third set laughed at the other two sets and said, “We don’t hold neither treasure nor enjoyment, but without us, the king will not survive or be clean enough, therefore, we are his favorite set of pots.”
This argument went on for many days. Finally, the king got to hear this argument and called the three sets of pots to his royal courtroom. After hearing each of their arguments, he finally said, “Every day I make many pots, and every pot that I make, I already decide for which purpose am I creating it – some for gold, some for wine, and some for water. It is not how it looked like that made me decide what to put into it, but because I designed it for a specific purpose. There are many pots that break after a while because of unhappiness or pride. They were unable to be content with the purpose that they were created for rather they wanted to be like the other pots or they would look down on other pots. There is no greater pot among you. What gives you value is who made you and what he decided to place inside you.”
The three sets of pots held their heads in shame and walked away in silence.
A lesson for us, Christians: we are like these sets of pots, Christ in us is the treasure that we hold and He has placed us in different situations. Our purpose is to display Christ and His life wherever He has placed us and not to argue about who the better Christian is.
Whether in happiness or sorrow, Christ be honored through it all.
Whether I am the least or the last of all, Christ be honored through it all.
Jill Thomas