Transforming Broken Bits

Recently an article in the newspaper covered the story of a man from Spain who does trencadis art. He was here in Grants Pass and did a beautiful mural at our athletic club. Trencadis is similar to mosaic art, but with one difference; mosaics are made from perfectly shaped square tiles and trencadis uses irregularly shaped tiles. If you take a closer glance at this art it looks like a bunch of broken tiles glued together, but when you step back you don't see the individual broken bits anymore, just a gorgeous picture! The artist has a knack for placing each tile in the right place so that when he is done it has become something wonderful.

Just like trencadis, God the Father is taking broken sinful people of various backgrounds and personalities and working with them individually and corporately to build something beautiful. God the Son, being the "chief cornerstone," is the perfect foundation and God the Spirit is the glue that holds us all together. If we look at each other up close we can see the imperfections. As we live and worship together we often rub one another the wrong way. It can be difficult. Sometimes the Lord needs to break off areas of our lives that don't fit with the picture. Painful as it is, He holds us in His hands, all the while, never letting us go. But if we could step back far enough we might get a glimpse of the lovely scene that God is forming.

Let us be thankful for our brothers and sisters in Christ, rough edges and all. After all, they have to live with us! The Artist is at work and we mustn't doubt that He is doing something beautiful. Some day it will all become clear as we enter that heavenly rest, free of broken bits. Maybe we'll be able to look back and see what the Master Builder was doing throughout all of history. We'll see His compassion, mercy, patience, discipline, sovereignty, goodness and faithfulness as He diligently made His masterpiece-magnum opus-out of His Church. To God be all the glory!