SUNDAY CHOICE – Brokenness, Beauty, & the God Who Makes All Things New – By Charles Schokman
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“As we sit on the beach, I watch my youngest as she hunts for shells. She races up to me, sharing her finds. Over and over she brings them to me, delighting in each of them as treasure:
“Mom, isn’t that orange color beautiful?”
“Look at the curves of this one, aren’t they pretty?
“Feel how smooth this shell is!”
“I love the stripes on this one.”
As I survey her pile, I realize that none of these shells are ones that I would have chosen. These are not the ones you’d set out on display.
They are broken and chipped, each marred in some way. While my daughter notices the beauty, I see the brokenness. I observe what is missing, rather than seeing the remnant of loveliness that remains.
As I look at the shells, I realize each of us are a bit like them: broken and chipped in some way. We retain remnants of glory, but none of us retain the perfection we were created to display. It’s for this very reason our world is full of the greed, racism, terrorism, unkindness, anger, and all the other forms of brokenness we see each day (both on the news and in the mirror). Like these shells, even the best of us are too marred to be taken home and set out on display.
And yet, in the midst of all the bad news, there is hope. The good news of the gospel is that God is working to make us new. While these shells are broken without hope of returning to their former beauty, if we are in Christ, we are being gradually changed. Our outer selves may be wasting away, but our inner self is being renewed, day by day (2 Cor 4:16).
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Just as my daughter noticed the individual beauty in each of her shells, it’s a hopeful endeavor to look for signs of God’s redeeming work in each other. In the midst of grieving our brokenness, we can also rejoice at the hints of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness that we see lived out in the body of Christ. By doing so, we display the paradox of being those who are sorrowful, yet rejoicing (2 Cor. 6:10).
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on us, because the Lord has anointed us to preach good news to the poor. He has sent us to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release us from darkness—
to bestow on us a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. —Courtesy of Melissa Kruger (adapted)
Pray this hymn will be a Blessing to you.
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