Jesse and I are at Orange Beach, which is beautiful, though rainy today. The sky is gray, the gulf is gray, the waves are huge. We've enjoyed two good beach walks today - the one this afternoon ended in a soaking wet jog as we attempted to get back to the condo in a sudden downpour! Something that struck me on both walks was the number of really large, beautiful seashells scattered along the water's edge. Every time I reached down to pull a particularly large, colorful one from the sand, however, it was only a piece of a shell. The jagged, broken edges were submerged in the sand. It kind of reminded me of our lives at times. We want to be seen as beautiful, perfect, together. So we desperately try to keep our jagged, broken edges covered. I guess we're afraid that once our brokenness is revealed, we'll be cast aside. Thankfully, God makes it clear in Deuteronomy 31:6 that He is the Keeper of broken things.
"Be strong. Take courage. Don't be intimidated. Don't give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He's right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you."
Let's accept - embrace even - our own brokenness and be like God in our love for the broken.
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2 comments:
Neat thing about the shells Les. Very appropriate thought. Not to mention sometimes our "broken edges" tend to inflict pain on others! Got to get those rough edges smoothed out so it doesn't hurt us or others! Thanks - Lots of neat ideas come from the beach, huh?!!! Lo
Great observation, Lo! Yes, there were many lessons...some of the shells are more interesting on the inside than on the outside...some shells have creepy looking insides - yikes! And the perfect shells are usually really small - guess they haven't been around long enough to get beaten up by life!
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