Broken Cup

It wasn't so much the scars on her wrists, arms and legs that worried him, it was the scars on her heart.  Although he hasn't known her for very long, it's feel like they been connected forever.  It was odd how he knew when to be quiet for her.  When she needed him to be there and even when he knew she needed him to stay away.  As he stared at her face, he wondered if she ever knew him that well.

At this moment, he was struck by a particular memory.

It was early in their friendship.  She was feeling particularly low about loves lost, at her own doing, and how she felt like her heart just wasn't capable of holding love for anyone for any appreciable amount of time.  She said she felt like it had a huge crack in it.  That's when he went into the study and got one of his most prized possessions.  The teacup that once belonged to his grandmother.  It wasn't anything fancy.  Not worth hardly even a dime.  But, it was priceless to him.

So, he took it back in the other room and showed her.  As he handed it to her, he tried to repeat the same words his grandmother had told him. "Take this teacup.  Hold it.  Think of it as your heart.  It's so frail yet has held so much in it.  See that crack running down the side next to the handle?  Well, your heart has many cracks it, just like that one.  You see?  God didn't intend for your heart to be completely healed.  He wants the love to seep out so that He can pour more into it. Do you see it now?  It's okay that your heart has that crack in it.  That way God and keep filling it up.  Do you see the crack now?"

She smiled that little half-smile that she always gave when she was touched but didn't really want to show it.  She just sat there, holding it in her hands.  Looking at it.  Admiring the crack.  Comparing it to her heart.  It brought tears to her eyes just knowing she wasn't broken.  That her heart had a crack in it by design.  When one of her tears fell into it, she held it up to give back to him.  He closed her hands around it and said, "I want you to have it. Always.  Whenever your heart is hurting, hold it and remember the love that God, and i, would love to pour into it."  That was a good day.  For both of them.

Suddenly it dawned on him why that particular memory flashed before him.  He saw it.  The teacup.  In her hand.  Just before they closed the casket.

As the tears overcame him, all he could think was "Thank you, God.  I guess she knew me after all."