Article November 27, 2017 Issue

The teapot and the right stuff

Deb Hensley

The teapot was completely black. So black you’d never know it was made of silver. I’d tried cleaning it up a couple of times over the years, but the polish hadn’t worked. It was too far gone, I thought.

But recently, during a cleaning spree in the garage, I discovered it in a battered box where I’d stashed it for the last ten years. I had a brief urge to clean it again but remembered how useless my polish had been. “Try this stuff instead,” my husband said, handing me a bottle of industrial boat polish. Bingo. This was the right stuff. With a few swipes, I had my teapot back—lovely, polished, useful, and gleaming in the morning sun.

“Isn’t that just the way of grace in human lives?” I thought afterward. What was once lost and tarnished gets found, cared for, and restored. The right application of grace and Truth lifts off the tarnish and restores our usefulness, beauty, and purpose. We see that our real spiritual being was never touched.

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