Good morning Making Space for God friends! I have been enjoying summer with lots of grandchildren coming and going (mostly coming:)) and loving it. My schedule is a bit freed up in the summer so I take advantage of every minute I can have with them. This week we went to the beach with my daughter and two of her children and her foster child.

Payton, the youngest and I walked on the beach and collected shells one day and I was surprised to see that she would not pick up the pretty, unbroken shells; only the broken ones. Finally, I asked her, “Why don’t you collect the nicer shells?” Her reply, “Yiayia, the broken shells are more beautiful.” I can hear your response now– same as mine. Aww….. how dear.

As we walked on the beach collecting shells in her little bucket, she shared with me that we need to see the beauty in everything. Now mind you,  she is only 8 years old. She said that anyone can recognize the beauty in the perfect shells, but you have to have “special eyes” to see the beauty in the broken ones. Another sigh….. Proud is an understatement.

Jesus came that we might have life and life abundant. Yet we are broken, have stress and issues that seem insurmountable. We feel insignificant, unlovely and perhaps at times unwanted. We feel as though we are missing something half the time and the other half of the time we are piecing together what we think we need. And all the while, Jesus is saying, “Come, just as you are.” His arms are open looking at the mess of our lives and seeing the beauty. His desire is for us to see the beauty within as well.

I was cleaning up my office when we returned and I broke a vase. I kept thinking about what Payton had said on the beach- broken but still beautiful. I tried to glue it but it was beyond repair. We feel that way sometimes. “I am too broken to be fixed… I’m not worth it.” I thought about the broken pieces of red glass that my friend took to Africa from the ministry’s yard sale. I tried to throw them away and she said that in Africa they are valuable because women in Africa make things out of them.

Friends, we are all broken to some degree or another. But God loved us to the moon and back and sent His son to repair what was broken. When he comes into our hearts He gives us a new heart and it doesn’t matter how broken we feel, we are a new creation in Him. 

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 

Friends, to all who belong to Christ, Jesus brings hope, restoration and repairs our broken hearts. Now that is good news to those of us who see ourselves as broken shells on the seashore.