One of the first things I would do every morning upon awakening, during my recent vacation, was throw on some shoes and head down to the beach. Each morning I would take a long walk, alone, as the waves lapped at my feet. There was just something so calming and so special about those solitary mornings. The sound of the wind and water was hypnotic. Smiling at the few passers-by that I encountered during my morning jaunt, I would use that time to clear my head, pray, and watch the pelicans glide silently through the air. With wings outstretched, they would fly so low over the water you could almost see their toes dip into the glistening gulf. But my favorite thing to do on those daily walks was look at the shells. As a girl, I would spend hours with a bucket as I examined each shell to find the most perfect and beautiful shells to add to my collection. True to form, during this trip my eyes were once again drawn to the seashells. There were just so many of them! Because of how the gulf would pound the shores during high tide, there were lines of fractured shells the entire length of the beach. The crunch of these broken pieces under my feet would provide an unexpected and soothing soundtrack as I walked.
Don’t get me wrong…there were many “perfect shells”. There were shells that were brightly colored. There were shells that successfully survived, unscathed, the beating of the surf and sand. These shells were lying on the beach in pristine condition, just waiting for the novice or professional shell collector to pluck them from obscurity. These shells knew they would then join that lucky collector’s treasure trove in another home state once the vacation of that treasure hunter ended.
I passed these perfect shells by. This trip, I was drawn to the shells that had taken a beating. I stopped to look more closely at the shells that were bruised and battered. Each day I would pick up one or two of these misfit shells, stick them in my pocket and bring them back to the beach house that was home to me during my stay. Early in the week, a family member asked me after my early walk if I had found some pretty shells that morning. I pulled out the beachy treasures I had brought home that day. He looked surprised as he surveyed the shells I held in my hand. I told him I was more drawn to the broken shells this trip. “There is beauty in the broken”, I explained. “You may have just found your next blog post,” Shawn replied.
There is a type of Japanese art called Kintsugi. For centuries, Japanese artisans have practiced the age-old tradition of using gold or other precious metals to “repair” broken pottery. Instead of cementing broken pieces together with an adhesive that would camouflage the fractures, these artists would highlight the pottery’s faults in such a way the pottery became a beautiful, one-of-a-kind, piece of art. These broken pieces would likely have previously been discarded. Now in the hands of the artist, they have been given a second, even more beautiful life.
My sister married a pharmacist. Little did we all know her husband would be a pharmacist by day and become a glass mosaic artist by night. Todd developed an interest in creating art with pieces of broken glass. His mosaics are simply amazing. Some of his mosaics contain over 40,000 pieces of glass, each piece painstakingly placed and glued by hand until Todd’s artistic vision is complete. Todd has had his mosaics shown in galleries across the country. He has attended conventions and demonstrated his techniques. He has sold some of his one-of-a-kind mosaics to lucky collectors. But the beauty of his mosaics is each one is made from glass that has been broken. Only an artist like Todd can look at broken glass and see the beauty of the final masterpiece before a single piece of glass is put in place.
My fascination with the broken is no accident. Life is like the ocean waves and I am like a shell that has been hurled full force into the sand. I’ve been broken during that process. I’m confident you have felt the fury of life’s waves and have felt broken at some point, too. The high tide and pounding surf of life takes its toll on all of us. None of us escape unharmed. Some people may try to pass themselves off like the rare, perfect shells I saw on the beach during my vacation. But if we have lived any life at all, then we know some of those “perfect” shells are really just broken pieces glued together to camouflage the cracks we have earned on our journey. Fractured dreams, disappointments, disillusionment, disease and even death can break us. Sometimes we become so broken we lose hope.
The Bible has much to say about our brokenness:
You are altogether beautiful, my darling. There is no flaw in you. Song of Solomon 4:7
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us. Ephesians 2:10
Did you hear that? God sees no flaw in you. You are beautiful in his eyes. He considers you a masterpiece. He has good things planned for you. Those cracks you see? The broken parts that make you feel less than? God fills those cracks just like the Japanese Kintsugi artists fill the pottery cracks with gold, giving us an even more beautiful tomorrow. The gold God uses to repair those cracks? It doesn’t just add beauty. It allows us to fulfill our purpose while making us stronger than we were before. Our strength isn’t ours. Our strength is provided by the generous strokes of the divine artist.
The Bible goes on to say: God will restore on us a crown of beauty in place of our ashes. Isaiah 61: 3b
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:11
Even when our lives feel like they have gone up in flames, when there aren’t even pieces left but only ashes, God makes a promise. He promises to trade our ashes for beauty, because he makes EVERYTHING beautiful in its time. Not some of the things. Not someone else’s things. All the things. Everything will be made beautiful. That promise includes you and it includes me.
So have courage. If you are feeling broken today, if you feel discarded or you believe you lack value or worth, take some time to remember. Remember because of your brokenness, the beauty of your life will come in the divine artist’s time. We may get impatient. We may want things to happen according to OUR timetable. Let’s not forget the divine artist can see the entire masterpiece of our lives. He doesn’t see what we see. While we can only see the broken, his perspective is different. He sees how each piece fits together. He can already see the end result of the masterpiece of your life. Here’s a spoiler alert: In the eyes of the artist you are already a perfectly beautiful, priceless work of art. Let’s try to live our lives through the lens of the divine artist. There really is beauty in the broken if we take the time to look for it.
