The Man With the Leaky Bucket

Don’t write someone off because they don’t come up to the mark in your eyes. They have value in the eyes of God, ‘for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving’ (1 Timothy 4:4). 

There is a story in Chinese culture about a man with a leaky bucket. It goes like this.

There was a man who carried two buckets, one on either side of him, balanced on a pole over his shoulders. Every day, he went to the well and filled the two buckets with fresh water. On his arrival home, one bucket was full, and the other bucket was half full. The full bucket was smug and proud of itself. The half-full bucket was anxiously apologising because it was leaking. ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry,’ said the man. ‘Have you not noticed the beautiful wild flowers growing on your side of the road as we walk back home? You have been watering them every day as the water leaked from your bucket.’
Anne Marie Sweeney, The Sacred Heart Messenger, February 2024