Mosaic

A few weeks back I was the speaker of the week at Pilgrim Pines, a Christian conference center affiliated with the East Coast Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. It is a place that holds a long, deep, and meaningful place in my life, and has been instrumental in my faith walk. I relish the opportunities I have to go there and give back to a place that has given me so much. (http://www.pilgrimpines.org/)

My theme for the week was entitled "The Beautiful Struggle: Finding Hope and Glimpsing Glory." It was a deeply powerful week as we uncovered how it is so often in the midst of life's struggles that we meaningfully encounter God's overwhelming love and mercy. And in addition, how our response to the struggles of life can be a witness of God's light to a world so lost in darkness.

Through scripture study (centered on Romans 8), relevant videos, and personal stories, we allowed ourselves to see how the fragments of our broken lives can fit together to make a beautiful mosaic of Christ's grace.

As a hands-on application of this, we made a mosaic tile cross. One of the skilled wood workers at the retreat center made me a 2 foot by three foot wooden cross with a quarter inch lip all the way around it. We provided tile pieces of all shapes, colors, textures and sizes, as well as the tile adhesive. The folks in attendance were invited to come forward and select a tile fragment that represented one piece of the brokenness in their own life, and to place it anywhere they chose on the cross. After they finished, we let the adhesive set, and later that night applied the grout to fill in the cracks and edges. The next morning, at the conclusion of my last session, we unveiled the cross. When I did, you could hear the gasp from the crowd.

It was beautiful. It shimmered. It reflected the light. It revealed the very glory of God. The fragments...the broken pieces...the weakness...all came together to reveal God.

It is in our weakness that God is glorified. It is in our brokeness that His strength is revealed. In Christ, the struggle becomes beautiful.