Turning Brokenness into Beauty

Turning Brokenness into Beauty

(ROCKWALL, TX — May21, 2018) You either watched every minute of the wedding or you weren’t the slightest bit interested.  Since I’m an anglophile, love Downtown Abbey, Doc Martin, Acorn TV & Call the Midwife, I was up Saturday morning at 6 a.m. watching THE WHOLE THING.  I still can’t get over the fact that Princess Diana is gone or that her princess life was a total disaster.  My husband has a hard time understanding “the King’s English” so he’s not terribly interested.  He wishes they would “Just speak English!”

Have you ever known a fairy tale that came true?  One besides Cinderella or Snow White, Rapunzel or Beauty and the Beast?  No, in most stories, even yours, there are locked doors, wicked step-mothers, poison apples, and other evil intents designed to change the ending.

At this moment I can’t even think of one person I know that has not had their fairy tales shattered by someone else’s foolishness, an accident, or a true evil intent.  That seems to be the human element…shattered dreams, broken hearts, fractured relationships.

I suppose you could go through life like my manic friend, a child of divorce.  She’s taking enough drugs to keep a smile on her face, frozen to the realities of her very difficult life.  But the Piper must be paid…eventually…in physical and emotional brokenness.  Maybe that’s why we like royal weddings so much.  They help us escape the painful realities of life for a brief morning, thinking, “If it can happen for her, perhaps it can for me, too!”

Brokenness seems to be the price of admission.  But broken vessels can be mended.  That universal glue, the Spirit of God, can cover those shards and chips, creating something so beautiful and most often useful.  We call them mosaics.  Ceramics that have been fired, broken, and in the hands of an artist used to create a work of art, can be seen not just in museums and churches.  They can be seen in the faces of folks you know or meet every single day.  Some are in the process of being shaped, but many are viable, useable, bringing hope and grace to those who know them.  They’ve been known to sit alone at a wedding or even be the bride walking alone down the isle of St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, UK.

That Universal Glue, unlike Elmer’s, isn’t water-soluble, not does it dry clear.  It dries into a form that has been designed by the Architect of the Universe, beautiful to the eye, if you know what to look for.

When I gaze into the night skies                              You have given man a crown of glory and honor,
And see the work of Your fingers;                            And have made him a little lower than the angels.

The moon and stars suspended in space.                You have put him in charge of all creation:
Oh what is man that You are mindful of him?          The beasts of the field, the birds of the air,

The fish of the sea.

O Lord, our God the majesty and glory of your name transcends the earth and fills the heavens.

O Lord, our God; little children praise You perfectly, And so would we. And so would we.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

The majesty and glory of Your name.

Thank you for the broken shards and the chipped pieces of my life that you have formed into beauty.

That’s a good word!

By Paula Lively. Paula is a Volunteer Chaplain at Broadmoor Medical Lodge in Rockwall. She is a VERY retired RN who loves serving the residents at Broadmoor. She and her husband, Fred, have lived in Rockwall for 15 years.

Our monthly print edition is delivered free to ~20,000 homes in Rockwall and Heath, TX.

To share your good news and events, email .

Subscribe to our email newsletter here.

Advertising: 214-342-8000 or .