stephen R Harrison

Once in a college Bible class, I remember observing some ancient broken pottery discovered in an archaeological dig.  These pieces used to be whole useful pots and vessels, but now they were in shambles.  However, the professor had one whole pot that was reassembled from several shards of pottery.  While it was old and fragile, I couldn’t help but see its beauty.  How amazing it was that even after thousands of years, the broken pieces could be reconstructed!  It was a perfect picture of what Jesus does for us.  He makes hopelessly broken things gloriously beautiful.  

The closer you get to something, the more of its imperfections you see.  Ever look in a mirror?  Everything is that way, that is, except the Lord.  The closer you get to Him, the more of His perfection you see.  Take marriage for example.  When you were dating, perhaps you were “love struck” and failed to see a real beautiful yet broken person in front of you.  All you could see was their beauty.  As time went on, you would soon realize that person had bad breath, bad habits, and even a bad attitude. Funny thing is, so did you!  The more you dug, the more broken they became.  Hopefully, you didn’t dump them for being imperfect.  Hopefully, you saw beyond their faults to the person they are and could be in Christ.  In marriage, you grow daily with one another in Christ.  While flawed, imperfect, and sinful, Jesus continues to transform from glory to glory in His image (2 Corinthians 3:18).  He does the same for you.  

Marriage is God joining two imperfect people through a perfect Savior to make them into what they could not be without Him.  Beautiful, yet broken.  In Christ, we don’t throw away broken people, we see the beauty they are and can become.  We “bear with one another and forgive one another” (Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:2).  When Jesus saw broken people, He was moved with compassion and wanted to shepherd them (Matthew 9:36).  Love, as 1 Corinthians 13 tells us, is patient, kind, forgiving, humble, honoring, selfless, gentle, truthful, protecting, trusting, hopeful, and enduring.  These qualities are necessities in beautiful yet broken relationships.

The church is also beautiful yet broken.  The closer you get to a church, the more of its imperfections you will see.  Any church.  Even that new one you found that’s “perfect”.  One must remember its beautiful yet broken and in desperate need of Jesus.  One must also remember they too are a beautiful yet broken church member and in that same desperate need.  Just as in a marriage, church members must exercise Colossians 3:13, Matthew 9:36, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and so many more verses.  Jesus makes us beautiful because we are redeemed by His blood and made in His image.  He takes the church’s brokenness and sin and cleanses and forgives, “to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27).  

One of the most beautiful qualities of a marriage or a church is that they know they are beautiful yet broken.  This causes them to depend upon Jesus humbly and desperately.  They realize they need the Potter that is Christ to reconstruct them on His wheel of grace and mercy.  In turn, they know they must forgive one another, be compassionate, bear with one another, be patient, kind, selfless, gentle, truthful, protecting, trusting, hopeful, and enduring.  These are the marks of a beautiful yet broken people, and that’s what makes them so genuine and attractive.  When you find beautiful yet broken people with these qualities, never let them go.