Truth is,I did not forget it. I simply waited for the right time to follow through on the idea that began bubbling in my mind in the moments between crash and stash. As the weeks passed, I gathered materials and let the idea simmer. I wanted to bring beauty from the brokenness.
-A terracotta flowerpot I'd begged off of a friend after her kids...did what kids do.
-Some pebbles and special rocks.
-A cracked pot or two of my own.
-Some tiny plants I found at the greenhouse.
-A few leftovers from other planting projects.
-Some moss I had dug from a garden path.
-Not...usefulness because of brokenness.
-Not ...beauty in spite of brokenness.
-Or beauty without brokenness,
but beauty. from. the. brokenness.
Something that would be even better than a plain, unbroken pot.
Something beautiful.
A song surfaced in my mind, the hauntingly lovely piece,
Beautiful Things
by the musical collective Gungor.
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
The words circled through my mind, their truth underscored by what my hands were doing, taking shards of "terracotta" (baked earth) and making beautiful things. On a deep level I knew it was true. He does, this, God does.
I’m getting old now, and as time passes, I’m more convinced of this reality –
broken pieces are all that God has to work with, for all of us are broken, every single one of us.
We are broken when other people drop the ball that is our life.
We are broken when we create stumbling blocks by the poor choices we make, and we all fall down.
We are broken by rejection.
We are broken by our own poor choices.
Sometimes we are broken when our baggage tips over, and in a moment, lives are shattered.Pieces are scatte r ed everywher e .
He does not simply glue us back together and say, "Good enough."
He doesn't say "Oh well,"
and come up with another way to "use us" for His kingdom work
with our broken edges sticking out everywhere.
No.
He sits with us, with our broken pieces, and
"He makes beautiful things out of dust, out of us."
I'm not sure how He does that.
But I am no less certain for my lack of understanding.
I've seen it too often, people with reasons to be discarded in the dust bin like shards of pottery -
people broken by abuse or addiction or really crummy parenting -
and they are full of beauty and grace in ways that can only be explained by the gentle, healing hand of God,
the One who makes beautiful things out of dust, out of us.
I'll probably never throw out another broken pot in my life.
Fortunately, God doesn't either.
You can rest in this truth, with all your own broken pieces -
He makes beautiful things out of dust, out of us.
Beautiful Things
by Gungor
All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us