Mosaics Made from Shattered Hearts

Have you ever stopped to appreciate the beauty of a mosaic? It is an artform crafted by the use of many small pieces of tile, broken pottery, or stones, intricately fitted together to create a picture or a pattern. When I look at a mosaic, I appreciate the texture, dimension, and radiance that is pulled together by the artist’s skill. Using fragmented mediums that, standing alone, are insignificant, the artist sees the potential for grandeur when they are united.

Years ago, two of our kids created their own little versions of mosaics by shattering Dollar Tree ceramics and creating elementary school masterpieces. Though they were young and somewhat unskilled, I had a deeper appreciation for the art they produced than the original Dollar Tree ceramics.

I’ve been thinking of late how our hearts can be like those Dollar Tree ceramics bumped in the store and broken into pieces. Sometimes it can feel like circumstances have shattered us to the core.

But God, being the masterful, creative artist that He is, looks at those shattered pieces and says, “This is exactly the medium with which I can produce something beautiful!” With His sovereign, tender touch, He has the power to take those tiny pieces of our shattered hearts and create a showpiece of His glory.

What I think is even more beautiful is the way He can take the many shattered hearts of people, broken by their sin but united in Jesus and pull them together into what we call the church. Broken as we are, and as painful as the fitting together can sometimes be, we can have full confidence that, with our surrender to Him, He has a carefully crafted masterpiece in mind. And in fact, the more broken, the smaller the pieces, the more beautifully detailed and fitted together the church can be! So we can trust him when churches go through fragmenting seasons. He might be using it to break us and others a little more to fit us together a little more masterfully. What a God we worship!

The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit; you will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God. -Psalm 51:17