Editor’s note: Jill Hart is the Elementary Principal at FRCS
Beauty from Brokenness
The slower pace of summer often gives me time to sit and reflect, and I’m continually surprised by how God uses ordinary moments and images to teach me about himself. That happened recently when my husband and I were traveling in Northern Ireland.
On a tour of an old castle, a flash of color high up on the rocky wall caught my eye. As I walked closer to investigate, I saw them: daisies, bright and sunny, growing straight out of the broken stone. I snapped a picture, sensing there was a deeper truth in that image I needed to sit with.
Later that day, as I reflected, the picture of that flower brought to mind a passage of Scripture that has always made me uncomfortable: Romans 5:3-4:
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Truth be told, I don’t want to suffer, much less glory in my suffering. But I’m reminded that truth is found in God’s Word, not in my own thoughts and opinions. So I sit with it still.
My sufferings may look different from the sufferings of others I know and love, but to dismiss them as anything less than real suffering is to minimize what God wants to do in my life through them.
That image of the flower growing out of the castle’s broken places has become a reminder to me that only our loving and good God can bring beauty from our brokenness. I trust that Romans 5 is true: that the end of our suffering is hope.
So if you find yourself in a broken place today, tired, hurting, wondering if anything good could possibly grow out of what you’re walking through, may this image be an encouragement to you. The same God who tucked a handful of daisies into the cracks of a centuries-old castle wall is at work in the cracks of your life too. He hasn’t overlooked your suffering, and he isn’t wasting it. Slowly, quietly, often when we least expect it, he is bringing forth perseverance, then character, then hope. Keep watching for the flowers. They’re there, even in the broken places—maybe especially in the broken places.
