Our 26 year old came up last weekend and brought a gift. It is a clear acrylic paperweight inside of which is a little broken piece of pottery. More specifically, it is a small chip of pottery excavated from the site of the Hebrew temple that stood from approximately 350 BC until it was destroyed under Roman emperor Titus in 70 AD.  

As I look at this little sepia remnant, I imagine.  Was it in the background when Simeon held the baby Jesus, declaring, "Now that I have held Him in my arms, my life may pass"? Did it hold the water the Mohel used to wash his instruments at Jesus' circumcision?  Perhaps the aged Anna made the pot herself during her many years of living in the Temple.  Or did Joseph scoop water from this container to give his tired, thirsty wife a drink as they entered the Temple that day.

Is this inch long triangular chip from a pot broken in Titus's raid on Jerusalem, or perhaps from a bowl that too close to the money changers' tables when Jesus overturned them and drove out those trying to use the Temple as a place to make a quick buck.   Is this a piece of the offering container in which the poor widow placed her life savings of two small coins? 

Was this piece of clay part of the basin used by Jesus when He went through the required ceremonial cleansing before reading a prophetic portion of Isaiah? Or perhaps,as Jesus pointed to the temple from the Mount of Olives, prophecying its destruction, his disciples caught a glimpse of someone carrying a water pot into the Temple.  

Perhaps it was in the temple for centuries; perhaps just days before the temple met its end in 70 AD.  Perhaps it was used annually at Passover celebrations. Perhaps it lived humbly on a shelf of one of any number of widows who made their homes in the temple. Did the preteen boys scoop water from it to throw at the girls when parents weren't watching? Did the girls gaze into this pot to fix their hair and admire their reflection in the water it held? 

I'll never know, of course, the specifics behind the pottery of which this little broken piece once was a part, but as I look at it again and again, I can believe any and all of these imaginings are true.