Broken IS Beautiful (Part 1)

'The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. '
Jeremiah 18:1-6

An artist takes shattered pieces of glass and arranges them into a beautiful masterpiece.  Mosaics have been around since the ancient period in history.  Artists have been creating beauty from broken parts for centuries.  There are some beautiful mosaics out there to see.  However, they were all constructed from broken pieces of glass and stone.  An artist didn't start with a beautiful piece of glass and cut just the right pieces with the proper measurements to use.  The mosaic artist uses the leftovers, the unwanted, the broken.  The artist arranges the pieces of unwanted and broken pieces into a beautiful creation.






A few years ago, I was in a science museum with my girls, and on the walls, we found the most beautiful mosaics.

The first ones were made from jelly beans!  How fun is that.  Jelly beans were arranged to form animal pictures.  I think this was an excellent way to get rid of the awful tasting black jelly beans!






And then we came across some butterflies.  They were also mosaics.  However, they were made from old bolts and screws and weird metal pieces.

What was very obvious to me when we saw the butterflies was that those metal pieces were broken and unusable.  They didn't go with anything. A mechanic couldn't use them.  A carpenter couldn't use them.  These pieces were unwanted and for all purposes considered junk!   However, in the hands of the right person, they were crafted into something beautiful.

The same is true for us.  We all have places in our lives that we feel broken at one time or another.  There may be times when we feel unwanted or not valued.  We may have closets that have ugly, painful experiences stuffed inside of them, that haunt us even to think about what's inside.  Cancer, Autism, Fibromyalgia, Migraines--broken bodies may plague us daily.   However, when we consider that each hurtful feeling, each painful experience, each broken body piece finds themselves in the hands of our Savior, He uses each of those to bring beauty into our lives.  

Are there places in your life that you are holding tightly to and are afraid to give them to Jesus?   Are you comfortable in your brokenness and find it's more comfortable to be broken than to let God work?  My friends, if we could just trust the master artist!  The master artist created the world from scratch complete with zebras and giraffes.  He created the beautiful flowers, the majestic trees, and the elegant butterflies.  He breathed HIS breath into you.  You are His!  And He knows how to take the broken, painful, and unwanted parts of your life and make them beautiful.  

Will you trust the master artist, the creator of beautiful from broken to take the pieces of your life and make you beautiful?  Or will you hold onto the broken because it's comfortable?

--Karen Smith