Dear Love,
Made of steel, a poor man’s plate,
I rarely saw food, rarely ate,
And I mostly lived alone, had no mate,
I was thrown away—expected fate.
I laid there amidst the trash,
No hope to be ever owned again,
Nothing to be restored, No complains,
‘Cos I knew I was no gold,
But you saw me buried in dust,
You did not walk away,
Instead, you picked me up,
I wondered why,
as you carefully cleaned the dirt,
With the sleeve of your shirt,
A smile, as you saw your reflection,
through my dents and scratches,
you saw value in imperfection.
You placed me on your highest rack,
I got confused looks and some scornful stares,
But you had no shame to have me there,
The best of food, the top-notch care,
For an old, abandoned metalware.
Love, you picked me up from a pile of trash,
Love, you wiped my flaws and took me home,
I was thrown away with no hope of repair,
but You saw beyond, You called me fair,
Compassion that ignited hope,
Goodness that gave me something to look on,
And each time You look at me,
I carry Your reflection despite my flaws.
Love,
The Abandoned Plate
Footnotes:
Only the best-looking things are put out on display. The worldly standards function on looks more than the quality—style over substance. I can boldly say the same when it comes to people. The good-looking ones are made the face of a brand or even church for that matter. The other day, I saw an advertisement on a Kerala church’s social media page. “Looking for fair and thin female actors between 20 and 25 for a Christian movie.” I cringed reading and was disgusted by the whole thing. I knew for a fact that someone would pick it up and blow it out of proportion. And soon enough, that happened. Many believers and unbelievers commented on the post. Many scoffed at the whole principle and core values of Christianity. The best part about all this was that, the advertisement was shared by a pastor. He got trolled and bashed up with hurtful words on the internet. The news spread like wild fire.
I wouldn’t have been so exasperated if it was posted by an unbeliever but the fact that it was posted by a believer church and their shepherd got me heated up. Aren’t we supposed to reflect the image of God? This reminded me of an experience I had with a “so-called” pastor (not really ordained, self-declared title of sorts) in Kerala. I was having a shaky relationship with my parents at the time and I was also courting Justin (my husband now) at the time. I went to this church with my parents on a Sunday and there were only around seven people there because of the Covid restrictions. The moment this man saw me, he began targeting me with questions and showing off his skill of declaring byhearted verses without any context. The whole service was about putting me down and messing with me. And when the service got over, he said, “Let me pray for your deliverance!” My mother got excited because this was what she wanted—she wanted to prove that I have a demon in me.
“I sense a negative spirit around you and God told me to tell you this!”, he started off. I asked him, “what is it? What is this “negative spirit”?” To which he said, “God did not tell me to tell you that. By your body language I understood that you have a problem!”—WOW! *Slow claps* I understood he is a fraud from that very statement. He went onto call me self-righteous and started quoting verses from the Bible to prove his point. For a whole two hours he condemned me—no edification whatsoever.
There is a reason why the “love” chapter or 1 Corinthians 13 is strategically placed between two chapters that widely talks about the gifts of the Spirit—everything aligns to love. The gifts given to us must be used in love. Which means be it prophecy, healing, miracles or word of wisdom—it should all be in love.
My friend John Giftah, who is a Christian author, said during a discussion that “the only way to know if a prophecy is true is to wait for it to come to pass; if it doesn’t, it is not from the Lord. As simple as that.” He also went on to say how prophets should extend kindness to the people they prophecy to. There have been cases where prophets publicly humiliated people with their words. In the eyes of others, these prophets are calling out sins but for the person being targeted, it is just demeaning. But at the end of the day, we are all but humans and we make mistakes. So, we need to extend grace to these so-called prophets and pastors as well. “Don’t make these prophecies or tags your Bible,” John said.
God sees hope in our flaws. Our brokenness, scratches, filth and bruises don’t matter to Him. He sees us as something of beauty—His masterpiece. The people of this world may have tagged us as useless or unattractive but the Lord places us on His highest rack, proudly boasting His creation. Surprisingly even our spiritual leaders may let us down but God never does and never will He. Do not let false prophecies, lies or other tags define your worth. Look to Christ. He has already defined it for you—at the Cross of Calvary. Love redefined.