of mosaics

This past Thursday was six months since Dad's accident. I didn't know if it would be really hard or really not a big deal, no worse than the average day, or the average Tuesday. Kelly prepared a beautiful, contemplative, commemorative day for me. We were looking forward to it for weeks, especially making a mosaic.


The spiritual parallels surrounding mosaics are by no means new; the beauty has been appreciated over and over again. But the process was especially beautiful for me this week, and it seemed quite clear that I would write about it for this week's post.


We smashed some unwanted dishes. I smashed it like the way Satan will be smashed, sin will be smashed, death will be broken.


I started trying to make my mosaic. It was yachal, the Hebrew word I wrote about two weeks ago. We used different pieces from different dishes in order to have different colors. It made me think about how God uses all the pieces of our brokenness, weaving them together, using all things for good, never wasting anything.


It was really hard. It's a puzzle where you're not guaranteed to find a piece that fits. It gave me such a grander appreciation for the omnipotence and love of God who somehow has the power and ability to work all things together for good for those who love him.


I think it's beautiful that God isn't necessarily making the pieces not broken anymore, but he's using them the way they are. He's making something new. It gives purpose to something broken.


It's incredible that in order to make the mosaic, you have to break the pieces. There would be no art without the shattered fragments.


Another interesting unexpected parallel: the mosaics didn't look very good when we were done. We were all a little disappointed. But then I took Kelly's and held it far away. She was amazed at how cohesive the pieces looked from a distance. It made me realize that we have such a close-up, small-picture view of our own lives. But from a big-picture, eternal, broad perspective, it's more cohesive than we realize now. I can only hope for more glimpses of what God is seeing. We'll see it someday.