MADE IN HIS IMAGE: BROKEN TO BEAUTIFUL

MADE IN HIS IMAGE: BROKEN TO BEAUTIFUL by Nicole Trigg

Glass isn’t meant to be broken.

The process to become formed glass, is methodical, diligent, and precise enough to construct its steadfast strength and integrity to withstand an array of environments. 

You begin with God’s originally created material of sand or silica and then through the process of fire, refining, and melting… and then pressing, molding, and shaping…and yet another stage, called annealing, where it is slowly cooled to release any internal pressure to prevent future breakage.

It’s then cut, tempered, or shaped into its intended purpose. It may be a hurricane-resistant window that lasts for decades, the structural strength behind a thirty-story skyscraper, or the door to a thousand degree industrial oven… countless in form and seemingly indestructible. 

Yet… even then, it can still break. 

A sudden drop, a hard hit, or even unexpected stress or bending over time can leave it shattered into a million pieces. And at that point, it can never be put back exactly the way it was before.

But just because it can’t return to its original form… doesn’t mean it’s ruined. It doesn’t mean it has to stay broken. And it certainly doesn’t mean that’s the end.

In fact, it can be the beginning of something more beautiful, more meaningful, and more of an opportunity to share a story.

Just like this, God also starts where we are, in how we were originally created in Him from dust, much like that sand or silica, we too go through the refinement and shaping of trials and testing that we can withstand, still intact.

But sometimes we shatter.

When that drop, hit, or exposure suddenly happens. Sometimes by accident, sometimes by the ill intent of another, sometimes the loss of something so precious to us that was taken away without warning.

Or it’s that bending over time, we think we can withstand just a little bit more, and then a little bit more, only to suddenly be completely shattered anyway. 

Even though unexpected, we still saw and went through the process of seeing it break and shatter… but we still don’t know what to do with it next.

So sometimes we quickly try to pick it all up ourselves, the big and small pieces, and try to make it look as it did before, but it doesn’t work.

Sometimes when it all breaks, we feel exposed or shamed, so we hold it all close, and it ends up cutting us into our very being. 

Our arms get so full of those pieces too that it prohibits us from doing anything. It continues to get so heavy as we carry it as more broken shards are being added, it gets to be too much that we end up dropping all of it anyway.

No matter where we are in the journey of all of our broken pieces of “glass”: betrayal, illness, failure, grief, divorce, addiction, distant children, financial loss, and even unfulfilled purpose… we have the opportunity to take it and hold it upward to Christ.

We are seeing it for what it is, broken. 

But then as we do, we also see His light shine through. We start to see the potential + beauty in it. We start noticing its color… and shape formation…

We even start to see the remnants of the original materials God created with intentional purpose in the grains of sand that are still evident no matter what it’s gone through to leave those sharp edges.

When we take the time to examine it through His light, we will appreciate it that much more when we then can lift it up in surrender for Him, to take and expectantly + excitedly to watch to see what He’s going to do with it.

There are so many stories throughout the Bible of brokenness, of how God can use it for such good + purpose. Countless stories of redemption in women.

Like Rahab, who in the eyes of her community just saw a prostitute living in her brothel. God chose to send two of His men there… for a different purpose than her usual visitors. They needed hiding… in the very vessel of her home where a lot of brokenness was taking place.

But now we see as she recognized and surrendered to God’s glory, she got to use it all for Him + His masterpiece. Her culture saw her of no value other than to be used + discarded. But with her faith and a divine appointment, she got to be the legacy… as the great great great great ( 31 of them) great grandmother of Jesus.

There was also Bathsheba. Just soaking in her beautiful bathtub on her rooftop in the springtime air. Affluent and safe while her husband and all the other men were away at war. 

Until she was violated… 

By her husband’s boss.

King David, who wasn’t out to war with his men. 

Not only was she violated by him, she ended up pregnant by him. 

And Bathsheba had an honorable husband too. So much so, he didn’t go in to sleep with her as instructed as the coverup to this pregnancy because he slept outside with all of the other military men, who weren’t allowed to be with their wives yet. Out of this honorability, he ended up murdered, leaving Bathsheba a new widow. 

In her new grief and probably a lot of fear being pregnant with the king’s son. Another wave of grief came when that baby son dies.

We don’t get to learn about Bathsheba’s “in between” in this crazy chaotic brokenness of her life.

But… we do know there’s another son from Bathsheba… Solomon, King Solomon… the wisest man to ever live… and also made her a great great great great (27 of them) great grandmother of Jesus.

So out of violation… came salvation.

There’s so many other women in the New Testament, like the woman caught in adultery, the unclean woman that bled, the woman with five husbands + shame at the well. And how Jesus saw them for much more than what their society + culture labeled them as. So much so they became a first witness to the resurrection and go on to continue to build the early church to this day, 2000 years later.

God sees the potential to reflect His story + grace… not only through written text or audible word… but He also is the Master Artisan. He uses the materials He created to show people His love for them. 

When you go through cathedrals to this day, they are filled with broken pieces of glass fused together into stained glass depictions of these Bible stories. Yes, they are perfectly put together and so beautiful to look at. But, God’s purpose was also to create something that the poor man, who couldn’t read or write, could also learn the gospel + to have a relationship with Him even though they couldn’t understand a physical Bible.

Culture + society called them worthless + broken… God called them seen, treasured, and worthy enough to create such masterpieces for them that have become priceless in our present day.

Psalm 147:3 says He heals the brokenhearted + binds up their wounds… and I see it with this glass… a collection of every piece with such intention + tenderness, using all things for good + purpose for those who love Him + are called.

He takes the pain, gives the promise… and through the process brings purpose and all throughout. He takes each piece and gives it peace. He doesn’t discard them or see any of them too beyond His redemption. He just sees the potential as He’s perfectly forming them as new puzzle pieces from our past and intricately placing them in with the current ones. 

Sometimes He saves some for another work of art. 

As we keep looking to Him, asking when that piece is finally going to be used for something purposeful and not painful. 

But then He reminds us, like in Ecclesiastes, that He makes everything beautiful in its proper time. 

So we get to trust and draw closer in His presence. Because like in Psalm 34:18, our prayers look a lot different in the intimacy as we wait in the shattering. 

Just like us surrendering our broken piece to Him as we take the time to really see it for what it is and the appreciation becomes that much more. So is the time we spend in Him while we are in the waiting to reflect His radiance. 

That precious intimacy growing in the waiting in Him is sometimes the  very beauty that comes from the brokenness. There are so many times I look back in my shame, mistakes, and heartbreak and can now say I’m grateful because of the deeper relationship it grew me + my Father in. 

There’s so much healing when we get to where we don’t even regret the loss anymore… because of what we gained in really embracing grace + His sovereignty.

And even then He’s not done making all things new + not in vain. He takes that intricate process of becoming and presents opportunities to share it with others to give them encouragement at their broken pieces’ beginnings.

As we learn about our Ultimate Creative, and how we are His little creatives, we get to now look at this messy pile of broken glass in front of us… maybe even a bit intimidating… and tangibly take our cracked + jagged pieces as we intentionally hold them up to the light. We can take in the art of noticing its color, sharp edges, rippling, its uniqueness of what its gone through relating it to the things in our lives we want to surrender to Him for His purposes. 

We then with instruction, much like His Living Word, get to start placing them like new puzzle pieces within the cross. And as it starts to take form, appreciating all it took to get there, it makes us that much more in awe when we get to hold up our finished works of art to His light as it shines so much color, complexity, and radiance to others. Becoming broken to beautiful. 

LORD, as we are about to arrange with our broken pieces, let us notice each one and become aware of what You want to do with it. Let us release them to You to create something new and for good + purpose for Your light to shine through!

Amen