Collector of the Broken Pieces
Vacation season is in full swing! Have any fun plans lined up? Heading out to explore and have some new experiences? Or are you more of a creature of habit, happy to escape to a place you’ve been many times before? Some place familiar and comfortable?
Although we don’t often go there, my vacation of choice is to go to the beach. I could watch the waves forever, and I love falling asleep to the sound of the surf. And who doesn’t love a terrific beach sunset?!
I could – and do – walk the beach for hours. Just ask my husband, who usually turns back after 30 minutes or so. I take in the caress of the sea breeze, the sights and sounds of people and pets enjoying themselves, and the way the sand forces me to slow my pace as I walk. I’m a casual collector of pretty seashells, and I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot if I run across an intact sand dollar.
On a visit to a Texas beach several months ago, our youngest granddaughter walked with me. We both had our eyes wide open as we searched for the perfect sand dollar. A round edge might protrude from the sand, but upon extraction, we’d find it damaged and chipped.
We drifted several yards from each other as we continued. My bucket remained empty. The perfect sand dollar was elusive. When we joined up again, my little grandgirl was struggling to carry her bucket as it was now almost full.
Astonished, I asked her how she’d found so many sand dollars when I’d found none. It was then that she gently poured the contents of her bucket onto the sand in front of our feet to reveal a pile of broken sand dollars.
She replied, “I decided the broken ones were just as pretty as the whole ones so I collected them instead.”
Leave it to the Lord to use a seven-year-old to give this ol’ gal a swift kick in the pants.
I wondered how many times over the course of my life I’d missed out on something beautiful just because it was a little broken. How often had I missed opportunities because I couldn’t imagine scenarios playing out in perfect harmony with my own plans? How many potential rich friendships had I robbed myself of because I was initially put off by a hard story or a quirky personality? How much grief had I caused myself and others by expecting perfection instead of extending grace and compassion?
Every sand dollar had at one point been whole and “desirable.” Then the waves may have tossed it against a rock. Or the weight of sand piling onto it might have broken its fragile endoskeleton. It could’ve been crushed by the feet of a beachcomber like myself out on an afternoon stroll. And now here it lay on the beach, for my grandgirl to find and appreciate in its perfect imperfection.
I helped her put her broken sand dollars back into her bucket. As I resumed my walk, I began to fill my own bucket with remnants of sand dollars that lay broken and exposed on the beach.
I crawled into bed that night, a good kind of tired catching up with me. But before I fell asleep, I asked the Lord to forgive me for passing up all of the “broken” gifts He’d laid before me in my life. I thanked Him for being a Collector of the imperfect, a Visionary with a unique sense of beauty, and a God of grace and compassion – for where would I be without Him? Finally, I prayed that I would be more like Him in the days to come.
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“…The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7b
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:18
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9a
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Mark 2:17
“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, Who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’” – 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
