Mosaics

Debby Ryan is the Disney Channel's new star, but before you go jumping to conclusions, you might want to learn more about her. Her mind's creativity seems unparalleled and way beyond her years. How do I know this? Well, i love the Disney Channel. I mean, once you reprogram your sense of humor to their target audience, it really is funny. Plus it is so hard to find appropriate television these days, and I love napping with the Disney Channel on quietly in the background. For some reason it is some of my best sleep.

But there was something about Debby--ok, Disney is very good at find young stars that steal the camera and interest you. And Debby is yet another. Except there is something different about her, and I couldn't figure it out so I googled her, and found her music blog. She is not who I thought she was. She was much more impressive.

She is an intelligent, wise young woman, but one still senses she is young enough to see life's light and beauty before and more often than life's darkness. She never seems to be without her gleaming smile. Even if making a goofy serious face, it comes from a place of pure and young never ending hope. I was like that once, when I was her age. I dream of being more like that again, but with a wiser perspective on reality in relationship to hope. Either way, I just wanted to soak up every artistic and poetically written observation or opinion she had about life, God, music, and art.

Her blog's "theme" is mosaics. And that concept hasn't left me. . .

I was watching a tv show called Life Unexpected on Netflix. The daughter said she felt so broken inside she didn't think anyone or anything was going to be able to fix her.

I know that feeling, well and often. And I pictured all the broken pieces of my life: my health, my spirit, my dreams, my social life, my...my everything. I saw every piece of me on the floor broken into a million different shards, and I cried. I too often wonder if there will ever be a person, other than God, who could put them back together. And if they could, would I let them? Would I allow myself to burden them with that task? I honestly don't know.

And I came back to Debby's theme a second later: Mosaics. And I thought, what if they don't need to be put back together perfectly, like a puzzle, but what if we can take all those broken pieces and turn them into a new me. And like a stained glass window, when God's light shone on me, all my broken colored pieces would come to life.

And I thought to myself, and to God, that even though it would feel good to throw away all the broken pieces and just start over, I don't want to. I couldn't be more curious to find out what God, my friends and family, my life's loves, my dreams, life itself, and I can turn all my broken pieces into. I can't wait to see my mosaic at the end of my life and to have God' light shine on and through it. It's truly going to be beautiful.

But the mosaics idea: Well done Debby, well done. Keep it up kid. God bless you.

"I thought maybe I wouldn't feel so bad if I didn't have such big pieces of Pammy still inside me, but then I thought, I want those pieces in me for the rest of my life, whatever it costs me." - Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies

So, if you are feeling broken, look at all those pieces on the floor, and imagine all the possible mosaics He could make with them. Don't you see all those colors? The bleeding reds. The empty blacks. The lonely blues. The simple whites. The cautionary yellows. The loving pinks. The jealous greens. The exuberant oranges. The proud, artistic purples. They are all there. Waiting to be picked up and placed by God into the new you.

Lord, let Your light shine on us! Don't let us throw away a single piece. We never know which piece You will need next. But we believe You will take our brokenness aside and make it beautiful, absolutely beautiful (All Sons And Daughters).