AN EMPTY AND BROKEN JAR part 2

As the morning peeked through the clouds, Sarah woke with a sense of urgency to find the woman and her husband.

What if she needed something?

What if they didn’t find the stable?

What if the baby had been born?

She had to find them!

As she put on her sandals, she knew that she should tell her family where she was going, but she also knew her mother wouldn’t let her go to the stable alone.  So, she slipped out the door hoping to return before her family suspected she was gone.

Her little feet carried her as quickly as they could as she ran toward the old stable. As she turned the corner in the road, she could hear what sounded like a lamb crying out for its mother. 

As she approached closer to the stable, she realized it was not a lamb…it was a baby.

                “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  John 1:29

Curious to see this baby, she snuck around the side of the stable peeking through a broken slat on the stable wall. As she peeked through, she saw the baby wrapped in old cloth and lying in the wooden feed trough.  Sarah stood still watching the baby in awe.

Looking through the broken slat, Sarah’s scope of vision was limited.  When she shifted in her view, she could see the woman, Mary and her husband sitting next to the feeding trough looking exhausted from a long night.  As Mary was resting in her husband’s arms, she looked as though she had fallen asleep.

Sarah knew she wanted to bring something to the new family…to the new baby. 

She could get a blanket for the baby or one of her wooden blocks? How about some water?… water from the well?

But she had nothing to carry the water.  As she peeked through the wooden slat, she saw the old clay jar she had given Mary the day before. If she could only reach it without disturbing the family.

After Sarah considered her best plan of approach, she quietly slid through the opening in the stable wall grabbing the jar. Her plan was to get water from the well, bringing it back for Mary to drink. Once the jar was full, she would quietly set it at the stable entrance without disturbing the family.

She quickly approached the well filling the clay jar as full as she could and still able to carry it in her small arms. Balancing the heavy jar, she walked slowly back to the stable being careful not to spill a drop. As she walked along the roadside, her heart grew full of excitement as she carried her gift.  This was the perfect gift!

When she entered the doorway of the stable, Mary and Joseph became startled looking up at Sarah. Distracted by her embarrassment, Sarah lost her footing catching her sandal on a small twig. When she stumbled, the clay jar lost its balance. Sarah watched in horror as the jar slipped out of her hands and tumbled to the ground.  The weight of the water caused the jar to hit the ground with a crash breaking it into several pieces. She could hardly open her eyes in fear as to what she would find. Her heart was broken as she saw her gift of water spilled out amongst the broken pieces of the jar.

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”           Matthew 26:28 NIV

Sarah bent down picking up the pieces to her broken jar.  As she gathered each piece, she placed them inside her apron.  Once the pieces were collected, she left the stable in a hurried embarrassment escaping the shame she felt from her failed attempt to bring her gift to Mary, Joseph and the baby.

Broken-hearted, Sarah ran home. As she entered, the rooms were still quieted by the early morning.  She was able to retreat to her room and close her door to the world.  When she unwrapped her apron that held the pieces to her broken jar, a tear rolled from her eye. What was she going to do with this broken jar? Tempted to throw it away in hopes to forget this horrid memory, she reluctantly decided to keep the pieces. She gently laid the broken clay jar in a wooden box sitting by her bed. As she crawled onto her bed, the tears began to flow like a dam opened on a river.  Her heart was broken, as broken as her clay jar. As she laid on her bed, the tears turned into a quiet sob not withholding her heart.

Once her heart settled, she slid the wooden box under her bed in attempts to forget this heartache.

Days passed since the child was born in the stable.  Each day, she would slip from her house to get a glimpse of this child.  As she would stand outside of the stable, she would ask herself this question, “What was it about this baby?”

One day as Sarah was peeking through the wall, her heart sank.

The baby was gone…Mary and Joseph were gone!  She shifted her angle to see if they had moved to another place in the stable, but as she looked around, she couldn’t see them anywhere.  She ran around to the front looking in to see if she could find them.  She only saw left over rags they had wrapped the baby in.  Otherwise,…the stable was empty.

“Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance…She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” John 20:1,2

With sadness in her heart, Sarah walked home overwhelmed that the journey to the stable was over.

She knew that she had to forget the moment when her jar broke and the water spilled out…her empty and broken jar!

Join me next week for the final story as we learn what happened to Sarah’s broken and empty jar.