It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern. Isaiah 30:14 NIV
I stared with disbelief at the box sitting in front of me. Shattered clay pieces stared back at me. Then I looked up at Mr. Craig, my art teacher, who had presented me with the remains of my sculpture.
Trying hard not to let tears form, I said nothing. He gave me a sympathetic frown, shook his head, and said, “An air bubble in your piece caused it to explode in the kiln when it fired up.”
My eyes were glued to the hopeless shards of fired clay as my mind floundered in its search for a remedy. All my time and energy had been invested in this one major term project. It was to be my lock on an A+, which would bring up my grade average that was suffering from a chemistry class.
Picking up the box of worthless, shattered pieces, I footslogged to the large trash can conspicuously stationed in the corner of the classroom. I returned to my workstation to try to come up with a replacement project.
Minutes later, I looked up to see Mr. Craig once again standing before me. This time, he was holding the box of broken clay he had retrieved from the garbage can.
“Why did you throw this away?” he asked.
“I can’t do anything with this broken mess. I’ve got to come up with another project – fast.”
“No, you’ve got to fix this project.” His face was kind, but he wasn’t kidding.
“How?”
And he proceeded to show me.
I glued, patched, and repaired to rebuild the shattered ruin. When I finished, it looked more like an ugly clay-colored patchwork quilt than an artistic sculpture. It was in one piece, but it wasn’t pretty.
Mr. Craig studied the piece from different angles and said, “I know what you need.” He returned with a can of a silver metallic compound. “Use this.”
I used a palette knife to blanket the patchworked sculpture with the thick compound. The result was a rough, dull gray portrait bust sculpture. I remained unconvinced that the piece was salvageable and shared my frustration with my teacher.
Then Mr. Craig handed me an electric sander/polisher and set me to work on my sculpture again. The result was a gleaming silver sculpture. No one would ever suspect the amount of repairs that lay under the polished exterior. The finished product looked intentional.
Reflecting on this high school drama, I remember other times when I was ready to chuck it all.
Maybe you’ve found yourself thinking like this:
- The mess I’ve made is too big to fix.
- The situation is too far gone to be redeemed.
- The circumstances are beyond my control.
- The damage is irreparable.
Sound familiar?
Our shattered pieces humble us. It makes us aware of our limitations. In brokenness, we recognize our need for a power far greater than our own to step into our mess to bring healing, redemption, and restoration.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:17 ESV
I submit to His authority when I recognize and confess my brokenness before God. When I acknowledge my inability to fix my situation, I yield to His plans and purposes for my life.
God takes over when I surrender my plans, goals, life, and heart. He will gather the shattered pieces of my life and begin putting the broken bits back together again.
The result will be far greater and more beautiful than anything I could hope to accomplish alone.
God makes beauty out of brokenness.
In Mark 14, Mark recounts the story of the uninvited woman who crashed a dinner party to gain access to Jesus. Once, in Jesus’s presence, the woman broke a flask containing an expensive perfume. She anointed his head with the highly aromatic oil in a sweet act of worship and adoration. (Mk 14:3-9, Mat 26:6-13, John12:1-8)
The flask had to be broken for the fragrant, refreshing oil to be released. Otherwise, the bottle’s contents could never be used or appreciated.
It is often the same with us. In our brokenness, God refines and purifies us as He fills us with the fragrance of His presence.
What we see as shattered, useless, and without value, God sees as wholly restored, usable, and valuable. He sees a vessel suitable for spreading the fragrance of His love, grace, and mercy to others lost and shattered.
The shattered sculpture.
I could not believe my eyes. I stood gaping at the glass-fronted display case housing the artworks included in the Annual Art Exhibit. There, headlining the display of ribbons awarded, my rescued-from-the-garbage-can sculpture proudly displayed the “Best of Show” award ribbon.
I had not entered my piece in the show. Even though careful repairs had been made, I still saw the shattered pieces lying in the box every time I looked at my sculpture. But that is not what my teacher saw. He saw the finished work. He had entered my piece in the Art Show.
No longer shattered.
In Christ Jesus, all the shattered pieces of our lives have been beautifully, often painfully, fitted together to create an altogether new creation. We are glorious, eternal, new creatures transforming into our Savior’s image.
The sooner we believe this to be true and begin to see ourselves as God sees us, the easier it becomes to trust God in all things. We will come to realize:
- No mess is too big for God.
- No situation is beyond His redemption.
- All circumstances are in His hands.
- No damage is beyond His repair.
Lay your shattered pieces at His feet.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:21-26 ESV