The Beauty of the Broken

The beauty of the broken is found beyond this place

And all of us are broken – in need of healing grace

The fact that we encounter brokenness shouldn’t surprise us since God Himself told us straight out in Genesis 3: 16-19 that the result of sin entering His creation would be brokenness. Life here will be full of things like pain, unfulfilled desire, subjugation, toil, thorns and thistles, obstacles, sweat, trouble from childbirth until “you return to the ground.”

The Brokens are everywhere – all around us and inside of each of us.

The sin and brokenness we encounter is the inside out version of what God created life to be.  And yet there is great beauty in the Brokens. Really? How do you figure that?  God purposed before time began to bring regeneration and resurrection and He is doing just that through the Beautiful Brokens.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the human heart;

yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Those of us who walk with Jesus through this broken place experience His continuing saving grace as He completes His work to redeem, heal and restore in every area of life. His resurrection power invaded our world because of His payment for our sin on the cross. And His resurrection power continues to turn the brokenness right side out every single day.

He continually is at work bringing “beauty from ashes” and “making all things new.” And then He is so kind that He surrounds us with unexpected reminders of that work. Unexpected reminders like the star fish.

The starfish? Seriously?

Here is why I’ve come to think of the starfish as one of the things God gave us to ease our way through brokenness and loss.

Starfish are tenacious. They can encounter a wound that takes an entire limb from them and they will grow a whole new appendage! When it seems that life is wrecked, even when a vital part is taken from them, they regenerate. New life springs from broken pieces. God has provided for them so that their Brokens are healed.

Starfish remind us that our loving God will provide in extraordinary ways to heal our deepest Brokens! And in that healing there is greater beauty than if we had not been broken.

Throughout history, starfish have been a symbol of infinite, divine love, especially as journey mercies are needed when passing through troubled waters. As long as their hearts are intact, starfish can heal and continue to move equally well in all directions, depending on what the strong tides and chaotic currents demand. They endure to once again navigate life in the ever-changing seas.

Starfish remind us that our loving God will grant us hearts that are set on Him as we navigate through – and beyond – great brokenness. And great beauty is found in those evidences of His enduring love!

In His mercy God gives us practice runs with smaller Brokens so that when we face big Brokens, our faith muscles have been exercised and we don’t flounder in the waves of grief and go under. God uses the smaller Brokens of life to get us ready so we are familiar with His Presence and Power and have the life habit of trust and hope.

Maybe the greatest brokenness we encounter is death itself. Jesus is exalted as we are joyfully ready to encounter this big Broken. He is not exalted when we remain in denial about the inevitability of life’s temporary status. Our hope can be beautiful as those dear to us leave this world and then, also, as we ourselves experience this inescapable reality.

And even in this big Broken God gave us starfish to reinforce our hope.

In order to flourish, starfish need a different environment than we need. In our environment, without the sea and the salt and the other ocean creatures, starfish shrivel and die. It’s better for them not to be here in our environment. For them, God has prepared a different place. The starfish reminds us that hope comes as we trust God to move each of us into the environment of Heaven at the time of His choosing. And it will be better for us.

This life is only the beginning; the best is yet to come. Herein is our Hope.

I once scorned ev’ry fearful thought of death,

When it was but the end of pulse and breath,

But now my eyes have seen that past the pain

There is a world that’s waiting to be claimed.

Earthmaker, Holy, let me now depart,

For living’s such a temporary art.

And dying is but getting dressed for God,

Our graves are merely doorways cut in sod.

Calvin Miller, The Divine Symphony

In every one of our stories God is fulfilling His purpose to bring regeneration and resurrection through the Beautiful Brokens.  I’m reminded of that when I see the broken pieces

of a beautiful mosaic …

But that’s a different word picture for a different post.

For today, I’m looking at starfish and praying that we can reorient our perspective with a clear view of the hope of the Yet to Be.  May we live with anticipation for the Rest of Life in God’s presence when all the Brokens will be made Beautiful.

P.S. HERE is a video clip about rejuvenation of limbs on starfish (i.e. sea stars).