A Masterpiece From Broken Pieces

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. – Isaiah 64:8 
 
As a recent collector of art, I have come across the work of an artist by the name of Purvis Young. Young is a self-taught, urban impressionist from Miami’s Overtown neighborhood whose work is often a blend of collage and painting. He utilizes discarded objects, oftentimes broken pieces of material, then weaves and repurposes them into a coherent whole.  
 
He uses things like slabs of wood, scraps of cardboard, unhinged doors, yellowed ledger books, and any other material he can get his hands on to carefully craft together and tell stories of resilience from the African American experience.  
 
In many ways, Young’s work is a testament of the Christian walk. In our lives as Christ-followers, God is the heavenly artist who uses His own creative power on the broken, discarded pieces of our lives and weaves them into a beautiful tapestry to make us whole again.  
 
While it is uncomfortable and we do not like how it feels, brokenness is a fact of life; and as a pastor I see it all the time, when counseling people, visiting with families, and in my work as an advocate fighting for communities that have been broken by unjust social structures. Brokenness is all around us: broken families, broken homes, broken relationships, and a broken political system. Even our churches are broken, filled with people struggling with broken dreams, broken promises, and broken hearts.  
 
Thankfully though, brokenness, as real as it is, is only part of the story. The goal is that we’d be able to take our brokenness and move along the path towards wholeness. Like the broken pieces Purvis Young weaves into a complete whole, God wants us to take life’s disappointments and learn from them, life’s rejection and rebound from them, and life’s setbacks and overcome them. So my prayer is that you will not be bogged down by your brokenness, but instead that you would offer your broken pieces to your artistic Heavenly Father and see what kind of masterpiece He creates with your life.