The other day we went to the animal enclosure at Queen’s Park. We checked out the lizards and snakes, said hello to the wallabies, emus and dingoes, and chatted to the farm babies at the end of the circuit. It was fun (and littlest bean looked like he was in animal heaven…)
In the middle of the circuit there’s a mosaic sculpture, and a mosaic seat called the Numbellie Seat (The Everybody Seat)
The plaque on the end says it “depicts the story of the creation of the land of the Yuggera, Jagara and Ugurapul peoples, told by Aboriginal storyteller Shannon Ruska“. It seems to have been a collaborative effort between Artist, Storyteller, and various school kids…
I like the idea of mosaic… that you can take what was broken, shattered, only fit to be thrown out… and transform it into a thing of beauty – something that tells a story… heals a heart… speaks peace.
In my life there have been times when I felt shattered and broken… like rubbish, shunned and only fit to be thrown away…
I know that was not the truth of who I was – but it was how I felt…
Many years ago, God gave me a verse that told me what He saw, and comforted me in a broken place…
“O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
I will build you with stones of turquoise,
your foundations with sapphires.
I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of sparkling jewels,
and all your walls of precious stones.” – Isaiah 54:11-12
It helped me to see that I did not have to stay where I was – that He would rebuild me, stronger and better than before…
 Even the “underside” parts of life can be incorporated to sparkle and let the sun shine through!
Is my life peaceful and easy now? … Well, not so as you’d notice 😀
… but my healed cracks and fractures tell the story of my Creator-
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 16-18
… whether I stand in sunshine or in storm, I still stand firm in Him 😀
