Broken Things – November 10, 2021

It’s a few days after the storm and the landscape of the beach has changed. The small dune embankments have been washed away and the slope of the sand is uneven and bumpy. In low tide there’s now a sandbar that wasn’t there before. In front of it, a pool of water that resembles a little lake. Out exploring yesterday morning, I couldn’t wait to wade in the pool to get to the sandbar but when I did, I sunk like I was in quicksand. Things aren’t always what they appear to be.

Since we arrived, we have remarked that this beach is a treasure trove of beautiful scallop and oyster shells. You could literally stand in one spot, stoop down and fill an entire sand pail. As pretty as these shells are, I was longing to find the elusive conch shell. Isn’t that the way, we are never quite satisfied with what is right in front of us? Well, these shells now have company. The conchs are everywhere! The storm has dredged them up and has thrown them on the shoreline. Large ones, small ones, peach-colored ones, dark ones. Most of them have been tossed by the mighty currents and are tumbled and splintered, their pieces resembling cracked pottery strewn across the sand. Typically, I look at them, yet pass them by. I am on the hunt for the perfect and beautifully unbroken conch.

We are not unlike these broken shells. The storms of life have left us battered and broken. But they have also smoothed our sharp and rough edges. They’ve made us more able to understand another’s pain. More aware of other’s hurts. And more equipped to serve as a healer. If we feel broken, we are in the good company of our Lord and Savior. We taste a little of the cross He bore and know He more than gets it. Do we feel that He allows more than we can handle? Of course, He does. That’s what brings us to Him. We cannot handle it on our own. He, and only He can make all our shattered pieces beautiful in His sight.

“That Your love will never change That there's healing in your name That You can take broken things And make them beautiful You took my shame And You walked out of the grave So Your love can take broken things And make them beautiful”

-Ellie Holcomb

Reflecting on these lyrics from the song, “The Broken Beautiful,” I realize there are whole lot more fragmented shells than perfect ones. Perfection is not what it seems to be and is rarely, if ever, attained. I feel a kindred spirit with the broken conch and that it just might be more beautiful than it’s flawless counterpart.