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In the right hands
I’ve been working in my backyard the last few weeks. It’s part of a “keep-myself-busy” plan. I am self-employed. Well, I have lost my job. So, the yard needs attention. While cleaning up a corner of the yard, I found a tiny bottle. It’s about two inches high and a half inch thick. It looks like it has a cork in the top, but I think perhaps it was a glass stopper, like one in a perfume bottle.
Then, my mind begins to play with all kinds of possibilities. I wonder who it belonged to and where it came from. Was it a gift from a young man to his sweetheart? I show it to my neighbour and challenge him with the idea.
“It’s junk! Look! There’s a piece broken on the top. I threw it out,” he concludes.
But it’s not junk to me. It’s still useful. I like seeing it as a gift. Not only the imagined one from a guy to his girl, but the gift I am given just because I have found it. It can still hold something. I’ll find a small cork and add a little colored water to it.
When I hold it, I imagine the hand that has thrown it away. Junk? The slight damage doesn’t mean it has lost its function. It is just like me: I’ve been damaged, broken, but I am still useful. God picked me up out of the trash pile, dusted me off and found something new I could do. Perhaps writing was the thing I was meant to do all along. Maybe, just maybe, I needed to be broken and thrown away in order to fulfill His plans for me.
So, next time when you pass by a lost soul, beaten down and seen as junk by others, remember that he or she is God’s vessel. In the right hands, even a broken bottle is a treasure.
【助讀詞匯】
◇cork n. 軟木塞
◇stopper n. 塞子
◇perfume n. 香水，香料
◇embodiment n. 具體化，體現，化身
【參考譯文】
在對的人手里
過去幾周我都在后院里忙活。這是我“讓自己忙起來”計劃的一部分。我是自己的老板。呃，其實，我是失業了。因此，院子就顯得需要照料了。當打掃院子的一個角落的時候，我發現了一個很小的瓶子。它只有兩寸高，半寸厚。看上去它應該有個軟木塞，但我想應該是個玻璃塞子，就像香水瓶子配的那種。
然后，我開始想象各種可能性。我想它是誰的呢，是從哪里來的呢，會是一個男子送給他心上人的禮物嗎？我把它拿給我的鄰居看，告訴他我的想法。
“是垃圾。看，瓶口這里有個缺痕，是我把它扔掉的。”他草草地下了結論。
但是在我看來，它不是垃圾，它依然有用。我喜歡把它看作一件禮物。它不僅是過去某個我想象中的男子送給他女朋友的禮物，而且還是送給我的禮物，因為是我找到了它。它還能裝東西。我會找來一個小木塞，再裝點有顏色的水。
我拿著它，想象著那只扔掉它的手。垃圾？一點點破損并不表示它就沒用了。它就像我：我有缺點，遭受過打擊，但我還有用。上帝把我從垃圾堆里撿出來，拍去我身上的灰塵，給我找來別的事做。也許寫作是我一直應該做的。也許，僅僅是也許，我得先遭破損并被丟棄，然后才能完成上帝給我的使命。
所以，下次當你從一個遭打擊并被人視為垃圾的失意人身邊走過時，請記住他或她是上帝的化身。在對的人手里，即使是破損了的瓶子也是寶貝。
【人生啟迪】
每個人都有不得志的時候，但要記住那也許不是你的原因，而是你的伯樂還沒有出現。一定不要輕看自己。保持你的自信，不斷地完善并提高自己，這樣的話，待你的伯樂出現的時候，你就會一鳴驚人。
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