“Finding Beauty in Brokenness” by Robin Gilbert
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ~2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NLT
I collect teapots. I have delicate china teapots and teapots of stoneware. I have a beautiful teapot shaped like a rose and a teapot that depicts a favorite childhood nursery rhyme, “Hey Diddle, Diddle” complete with a ceramic cow jumping over the teapot. They are scattered among my home, strategically placed so that regardless of where I look, I feel a smile kiss my face and heart because there is a teapot.
Occasionally, I will pull one from display and use it for it’s intended purpose. I prepare a cup of tea. Then I will sit down to read, write or relax on the porch as I observe my neighbors.
One afternoon, not too long ago, the heavens opened and began to water the earth. I decided to sit on my porch, smell the rain and enjoy a cup of tea. It was a moment to inhale the freshness of the rain and watch my worries of the week wash away…and enjoy a cup of tea, prepared in one of my favorite teapots. After sitting and daydreaming, I decided to reheat my cup of tea, and when I stood to enter my home, my hip brushed the table, knocking my teapot to the porch.
The existence of time is amazing. I spun around, I saw the teapot falling, and in my mind’s eye, it was all in slow motion. With an outstretched hand, I reached for the teapot believing I could catch it before it hit the ground. As I felt the teapot brush the tip of my fingers, I began to smile, I had caught it! Then as quickly as the smile touched my face, it faded as my teapot hit the porch and shattered into pieces.
I felt my eyes fill with tears and my heart was in pain…my teapot was destroyed. In the time it took my tear to roll down my cheek, I pictured the empty spot on the shelf, I regretted fixing myself a cup of tea, I chastised myself for taking time to pamper myself, and I thought about the teapot I would not be able to replace. After another round of “if I had of’s, why didn’t I, and it’s too late now’s”, I began to clean up the shattered pieces and again, tears began to well up in my eyes. Leaving the pieces on the table, I went into the house to dwell on the consequences of my mistake.
Two hours later, with a heavy heart, I sat before the pieces of teapot spread out on the table and in my unbelief, and while replaying my mistake over and over in my head, I began to shift the pieces around…an hour later, I had reconstructed the teapot. It resembled the teapot before the fall, it took on the present shape of the new teapot and it solidified the capabilities of the teapot’s uses in the future…never again would it hold hot mint tea.
As I sat and looked at the teapot, trying to make the new teapot fit the old teapot characteristics, I noticed that the glue had created a brilliant, glossy seal. The teapot was glowing, there was a beauty that did not exist before, it was bonded and somewhere in that process, the cracks, created by the painful breakage, had formed patterns, beautiful, extraordinary, exquisite, unique, original patterns. The once ordinary teapot was now a magnificent piece of art. Beauty had emerged from the brokenness.
We all have something in our past that has broken us, our family, our home, our hearts and in the midst of that brokenness God tells us, he reminds us, that His grace is always more than enough for us, and His power finds its full expression through our weakness.
I pray that God’s Word will be a light unto your path as you may be facing your own trials, grief, and burdens. You aren’t alone, and there is One who can carry you when you can’t face these long days on your own…So in your brokenness be determined to find glimmers of beauty. Celebrate your weaknesses, do not fear, do not wallow in shame, do not regret, for when you are weak you sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in you.
~ Written by Robin Gilbert ~
Robin is a former Pastor and an ordained minister and a native of Denver, Colorado, who made Huntsville her home in 1982. Robin and her husband, Minister Isaiah Gilbert conduct Real Life Bible Studies through their ministry Our Church Without Walls. She is the founder of the Alabama Christian Business Association, a faith-based nonprofit organization that aids in the startup and connection of Christian owned businesses, and she has authored and published numerous books among which are Dear God…It’s Me – A Meditation Journal, The Ministers Resource Book and What is…Asked Javien, a Christian children’s book collection.
Robin is a proud mother of four adult children, a mother-in-law and a grandmother of five, which she thanks God for each and every day. A powerful, dynamic, speaker Robin uses the gifts of the Spirit to speak from her heart and soul with a genuine love for whom God made her and for what she does. When asked how and/or why she does all that she does, she simply replies…”I Am The Lord’s”.
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