A New “Creation” from the Broken Pieces?

I ran across this quote a few weeks back, and I have been meditating on it ever since: “All of us get broken in some way, but what really matters is how we get back up and put the pieces back together.” Do you agree with this statement?

I have been thinking about the meaning of brokenness and here are some of my thoughts. Have you ever tried to piece back together something which has been shattered? Last summer, one of my sweet neighbors made a monumental effort to painstakingly glue back together a piece of artwork which had been shattered. No matter how careful he was in the process, we could still see the places of brokenness.

Might the same concept apply to emotional brokenness? You can do all possible to put the pieces of your life back together as you knew them before the heartbreak (i.e., death of a loved one, breakup of a relationship), but there is no possible way you will ever be the same. So, what do you do? Do you toss your hands in the air and say “what’s the use in trying?”

Or, maybe, just maybe, you can take a different approach. Last year, I was watching an HGTv backyard landscaping show. The young lady was trying to create an oasis from what had been more like a desert. Of all the projects she undertook, one struck me and has remained with me to this day. She “repurposed” a piece of broken pottery. Instead of trying to put the piece back together as it had originally been, she went a totally different direction and took the broken pieces and made beautiful creation. I can’t find the exact creation, but if you go to this article, “How to Turn Broken Ceramics Into Art,” you will see an example.

I think the same concept can be applied to brokenness in our lives. We struggle so hard to put the pieces back as we had them before, all the while knowing that we will never be the same as we were before the loss occurred. Instead of trying to focus on restoring what has been broken, might we instead allow ourselves to dream of a new creation and take the broken pieces and make something new.

Copyright © 2015 by Kim Smith