BROKEN SEA GLASS

While on vacation, I was walking along the beach when I noticed something glistening in the water. It was beautiful and it sparkled, and I thought it looked like something precious. My friend told me what I was looking at was Broken Sea Glass and that people collected it to make jewellery. I knew I wouldn’t make jewellery with it, but I spent my time at the beach collecting it, and I would hang on to it as one would hang on to precious metal.

On returning home from my vacation, I was sitting looking at the pieces of Broken Sea Glass wondering what I would actually do with them, when God spoke this to my mind. He told me that this beautiful piece of glass which now looked like a jewel, was once sharp and very dangerous. It was only because it was tossed roughly back and forth by the waves and pushed up against the sand, that its beauty was brought out. God also told me that this is what He wants for His children, if we would only allow Him.

God wants to smooth out our rough edges and make us sparkle, however the refining process is not an easy one. We too like the Broken Sea Glass would have to be tossed and turned, pruned and chastened. While the Broken Sea glass is a willing object, we usually fight the Refining Process. I would later write a poem called “Broken Sea Glass.”

BROKEN SEA GLASS

Walking on broken sea glass

Yet not a shard penetrates the skin.

In the midst of the Refiner’s Fire

Clinging to God desperately, as He purifies me of my sin.

Each piece of glass is different,

Alone disharmony, but together they beautify.

Marked as worthless and thrown away,

Only to be caught by the keenness of His eye.

Tossed and tumbled by the roaring sea,

Its roughness makes the sharpness smooth.

Chastened and comforted by the Master,

We are His children, the ones He longs to woo.

Walking on Broken Sea Glass,

Sharp edges now smooth.

Nature has turned.

Scorching heat from the Refiner’s Fire,

Soon there will be a cooling,

For which we long and yearn.

Washed up on the sea shore pure and clean,

Pushed back again by turbulent waves.

God chastens whom He loves,

The Master aims to save.

Sharp glass now easy to handle,

The turbulence of the ocean has softened

Instead of running from the Refiner’s Fire,

We should learn to seek it often.

The smooth glass in many colours,

Is now a beauty to behold.

God seeks to take our tarnish crowns,

And replace them with ones of gold.

Broken and discarded, tossed away,

Nothing of worth to which one would rave.

The Father saw our brokenness,

And so He sent His only Son to save.