Broken Shells

Broken Shells

We’ve all been there… early risers to get ‘the best shells’ that wash up on the beach before they are all picked over by everyone else. Just take yourself there for a moment and you will even hear small children yell “Look mom, this one is perfect, it’s not even broken.”

So, why is it when we, as adults, gather shells we tend to gather up the whole non broken, attractive shells only? Come on, you know you do that too.

I collect shells, I always do and have done since I was a small child, rocks, shells, whatever treasures I could find in the sand or dirt. My friends would always ask “Did you get any good ones? Back at the beach, I find myself collecting shells again…The first batch I gathered was all non-broken shells, I have to admit but let me tell you what happened the next morning.
As I was walking early after sunrise, just me chatting with God, I ask God to direct me to the “good ones”. There is an abundance of shells at this beach and I was getting dizzy from bending over so much from picking up so many shells. I really did need God’s guidance and discernment on how to find the “good ones” and which direction to go to find them. . My bag was getting full and heavy as I had walked a long time which meant I had a long walk back with a full bag to carry.

Knowing God will direct my path as I asked him, I walked along the waters edge and deep within me I felt Him saying “What’s wrong with the broken ones? Pick them up and let me show you their beauty.” So, I started picking up all these beautiful broken pieces of shells and He just kept telling me, “See how beautiful they are? I can do more with these broken pieces through you than I can with the ones that are whole. You just gather them up and I will show you what to do with them.”

God is showing me more than broken shells on the beach washed up on the shore discarded, passed by, overlooked, and not wanted by the vacationer. God is showing me jewels in the sand. They look like pieces of art yet to be discovered because they are buried and broken.

The message was clear. It’s as if God was speaking directly to me, This is what I felt He was saying, “Vickie, this is life. There is so many broken “treasures” out there buried in the sand and all they need is someone willing to obey Me and come along and pick them up and put them in their bucket. I will do the rest.”

God is right. His word is truth. These treasures are already washed up on the shore. It’s not like we have to go deep-sea fishing for them. All we have to do is bend down and pick them up.
The combination of sand and water holds the shell tightly among a sea of sand… . the thoughts of God. In Psalms 139:17 -18 the bible describes how God’s thoughts of us are more than the grains of sand.

How precious are your thoughts about me,[fn2] O God! They are innumerable!
I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!

He has surrounded that gem and wrapped his thoughts around that gem that precious broken life and carried it to the shore with his thoughts (sand) and his Spirit (the water) and yet we- Yes , we have all done it- Throw it back down and say, “Nah, that one is broken, I don’t want it.”

We do the same to people. We call outcasts “crazy, lost, insane, addicts, criminals”. Whatever your label seems to be for someone different than yourself. They are all us, broken shells. We all were created by God for something more but somewhere along the eeb and flow of life we got broken, some crushed, but God still has his spirit and his thoughts tightly wrapped around us all.

Psalm 139:7-10 again describes how God’s presence can be felt in through a parallel of our lives and broken shells.

I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead,[fn1] you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

Pick up a piece of something that the tide has washed to shore. Feel the refined smoothness. The rough edges are gone… perfection. The sand and water have taken away the sharpness and made it smooth as glass. Tossed back and forth among the giant waves, wearing away the coarseness of our lives… God, Holy Spirit, Holy Water … wrap yourself in the image of The Holy Spirit carrying you to and from the shore refining you as God’s thoughts cocoon you and together they bring you safely delivered, refined and renewed to the shoreline. It’s actually in that rip tide that sometimes you may scrape the bottom polishing the rough spots each time the water quickly washes back over you washing off the debris left behind and carrying that grit back out into the ocean leaving you cleansed. It’s then that you realize it was actually that rip tide that you have been fighting that brought you safely back to the shoreline.

So God asks… “Will you get back up and try again, or won’t you? Will you give up or will you fight the tide?” Do you see what I see?

Maybe you are stuck in the sand someplace on shore. Stuck because, time and time, after rip tide after rip tide, you don’t have the strength to get back up on your own and now you are passing the water’s edge. You fight the tide instead of allowing the refining process to cleanse you. If the tide can’t reach you then you are just like that broken shell out there past the waters edge.

God can do great things and wants to do great things with your life. You just got out of his reach, got too weak to get back in the flow, or the wave, or the game, whatever your life situation is. Just because you are where you are does not mean you have to stay there.

We have all been washed up on shore and we all have broken pieces. Some are visible, some are not. We all have had people come along and pick us up, brush us off, and put our pieces back together or put us back on track, back in the game, back in the ocean, back in the arms of God, placed us on the ROCK so He can put us IN THE ROCK and cocoon us in HIS WORD! heal us and make us whole.

I challenge you, pick up a broken, washed up shell and really examine the details in it. Whatever it was at one time, who knows… but what God has now turned it into a smooth piece of art that is waiting to be picked up and appreciated for what it is today.
Maybe it needs to be brushed off a bit, but overall God has and will continue to polish it. Our job is to love this gem and rescue it from the tide.
God will do the rest.

Obedience is the key. I found myself by day four of my daily prayer walks and shell collecting with a rather huge collection of treasures. I started carrying a bucket instead of a bag and again I asked God for guidance because once again my bucket, mixed with whole and broken shells, was heavy and I had walked a long way. You would think I would have learned by now.

This time God spoke to my spirit and told me saying, “I told you to pick up the broken pieces” Well, yes,” I did do that God but I also picked up many more shells too which made my bucket heavy and full. So now, I’m tired, I have walked a long way, I am lost in thought, I have a full, heavy bucket and a long walk back.” God replies,” If you had listened to me you would have plenty of room and you would not be so loaded down with things I never asked for you to carry.”

Isn’t that just like our lives? We take back the control even when we know, that we know, what we are to do in life. I felt I knew I had a simple straight command from God and I was obeying him but yet I still wore myself out with things I didn’t need to do and in doing that I didn’t have room for the very thing that God asked me to do.

Once I stopped seeking my own desire in shell searching and once again sought the broken pieces I was instructed to pick up, it was then I found the most beautiful treasures. I found sand dollars and the most precious tiny shells that the others would overlook because they would pass by the broken masses in search of that perfect whole shell and miss out on all the wonderful treasures God laid out for me.

So, we are challenged to look at the sea of faces that we pass along the walk of our daily shoreline… which ones do we see, the beautiful, put together models, or the radiance of the unpolished treasure in the smile of a stranger in need.

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Tags:

broken, god, life, ocean, people, sea, shells, water and waves