There is nobody perfect. We all have our weak points, a flaw, a crack or something that prevents the complete picture. Our modern world is very uncomfortable with cracks or weaknesses. There is often a rush to patch them up, hide them, bury them but rarely to embrace them. The emphasis is so often on perfection and to have everything just right. There is almost a pressure to comply. Young people are particularly vulnerable, and when they fall short, they often just don’t know what to do. Leonard Cohen puts it so well when he says: “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”


We have nothing to be afraid of. So much light pours through a crack, that it is beyond measure. In God’s eyes there is no need to measure it because it is enough. The Christian message is to let our own unique light shine, even the light that comes through a crack.

There is a story told about a gardener who had two large buckets. One was leaky while the other one was brand new. Determined to replace the old bucket one day the gardener kept using it. Each day the gardener would draw water in the hot sunshine, knowing that one bucket was losing water, while the other one remained full. As time went on the gardener noticed that on the side of the path with the leaky bucket there were fresh, beautiful and colourful flowers. But the side of the path with the new bucket, that didn’t see a drop of water, was bare and barren. So despite its obvious flaw the old bucket was still doing a lot of good. The same goes for our own faults too. The invitation is to acknowledge them, work with them and use them to our advantage as best we can.