Since my boys were toddlers, I’ve always had a “mosaic box.” Whenever anything is broken in the house my boys know that we will put the broken pieces in the box and later create something from the broken pieces. Over the years, we’ve had a bit of everything in the box—broken teacups and tea pots, holiday ornaments, frames, tchotchkes of all types, and even beloved family heirlooms. When my youngest boy threw a football that caused my grandmother’s beautiful antique English creamer to fall to the floor and break into pieces he said, “Hey, mom, another cool thing for the mosaic box.”
Because I am a bit of a minimalist, I actually have been secretly relieved to part with things that I might otherwise have to continue to store and care for. Although I was sad to see my Grandmother’s antique creamer in pieces, rather than get upset, I decided to go along with my son’s enthusiasm. Jake helped me clean up the mess and put the salvageable pieces into the box.
Throughout our lives, we will find that we need to put our life’s broken pieces in our emotional mosaic box and see if we can find a perspective that will allow us to create something new and beautiful with our leftover pieces. It is true sometimes we need to be very creative to recreate. Many times, we can benefit from someone else’s input or support. As in nature, after chaos and upheaval comes a time for re-ordering, healing, and repair.
In any moment we choose, we can begin again. Grace offers all of us the opportunity to begin again. If we are deliberate, determined, and dedicated, in the place of ruin we may build something more beautiful than that which existed before.