God sees beauty beyond our marred natures, He sees possibility beyond our fractured circumstances, He sees ability beyond our broken bodies, and so He shapes it, He assembles it, and He polishes it into something wondrous, something worthy of His name.

In many of the great European palaces, you can find entire walls that are covered with mosaics. Pieces of broken glass and pottery or fragments of shimmering shells have been arranged by the finest artisans to form images, portraits, and landscapes. As you stand at a distance, you might think you are gazing at illustrations or paintings. It is only when you approach and look carefully that you can see the artist’s surprising medium.

If I were to hand you a box filled with shattered glass, another filled with shards of pottery, and a third filled with broken seashells, and then tell you to create something beautiful, you might scoff at me and doubt that it could ever be possible. You might laugh at the absurdity of it. Yet these mosaics prove that in the hands of a great artist, incredible beauty can arise from what appears to be little more than chaos, waste, and fragments.

Read More