Shell Game

Shell walks are a favorite vacation activity for my kids and their mom. I usually end up trailing behind carrying about 7 buckets of broken shells that have become too heavy for little arms to carry. As my arms began to tire last week, I asked 7-year old Katie why she didn’t look for whole shells instead of these shattered and random fragments. Too busy searching for more to even look up, she replied, “I think the different ways they are broken is beautiful. I am trying to find all the purple ones, no matter if they’re cracked. I’ll put them together in a new way.” As a leader, do I look at other’s brokenness or my own the same way? In seeing the cracks or sharp edges that paint a past, can I still envision the possibility of a beautiful future? Thankfully our Lord’s imagination is infinitely grander than even Katie’s and unlike me, He never grows tired of carrying the pieces.