"Gifts from the Broken Jar"

In her book, "Gifts from the Broken Jar", PJ Long tells a story she heard while in India about a village boy who brought water to a wealthy man. "Every day he walked several miles from the village to the river and back again, carrying water in two clay jars, one in his left hand and one in his right. The man paid for the water that was delivered- one full jar and one half full, for the jar in one hand was cracked and its water leaked out along the roadside. Over the long months, the boy made many trips carrying water.
One day he sat to rest before returning to the river, and a spirit in the cracked jar spoke to him. 'I am sorry, Master, that you have to work harder because of me. If I were perfect like your other jar, you wouldn't need to take so many trips. And you could collect more money, too. I am sorry that because of me your life is made miserable.'
The boy was surprised to hear such words. He did not think his life was miserable. He replied to the spirit, ' Because of you , I am very lucky. A broken jart makes my life beautiful. Come, let me show you.'
Together they walked back to the river. One side of the path was bare and dusty. But along the other side, where water had trickled down from the broken jar, the way was strewn with wild flowers." -Gifts from the Broken Jar by PJ Long-

My other favorite wilfd flower "story" goes like this........"I must tell you a great truth, Much-Afraid, which only the few understand. All the fairest beauties in the human soul, its greatest victories, and its most splendid achievements are always those which no one else knows anything about or can only dimly guess at.......Some of my servants have indeed won great visible victories and are rightly loved and reverenced by other men, but always their greatest victories are like wild flowers, those which no one knows about. Learn this lesson here in the valley, Much-Afraid, and when you get to the steep places of the mountains it will comfort you" -Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard-