Colored glass.  

Colored marbles.  Beautiful blossoms.  

Blown glass hanging from umbrellas.  

Anything with color.  I love it!  My solution for peace.  

But, sometimes the glass as beautiful as it is,

can fall and shatter upon the ground at our feet; & then . . .

All of the broken pieces – what do we do with them?  

I have been thinking about this a lot this morning.

I am watching the world seem to “implode around me”

as division rocks our nation,

over a virus, racism, an election, religion.

For me, it is not enough anymore to go outside onto my patio and gaze at the beauty of the colored glass and blossoms.  

It is not enough to rest in the fact that God SEES all things,  although I know this to be true!  

I feel a need to see the brokenness, to feel the pain,

to understand the jagged edges

before I can move my thoughts

on to centering once again

on the tremendous beauty in this world.

WHY?  

Because I believe that behind everything that is beautiful,-

there was once a struggle. 

Inside everything there is a revelation.  

These times are difficult.  

It is always difficult when we are forced to look into our hearts, & to reconsider the validity of our paradigms.

 It is always a struggle when we are  presented

with the truth of our own myopic vision

within our own bubbles.  

It is especially trying when  we are asked by the  ‘Lover of our Souls, if maybe:

These ‘settled’ hearts of ours should not be broken?

These resolute paradigms of ours should not be shifted?  

These luminescent bubbles of the worlds that we live in

should not be burst?

So the broken pieces?  . . . 

What do we do with them?

Maybe we pick them up, and we look into their fragments

& we see what needs to be seen.  

Maybe, we hold them up into the light &

attempt to catch the rainbows swirling around their edges.  Maybe some of the pieces we need to throw away,  

& others we piece back together

& hang them up with the others.  

Maybe we recognize that GOD sees

all the broken pieces in our worlds, &

 HE loves US just the same.  

Maybe, just maybe, . . .

We stretch ourselves to embrace HIS vision of beauty!

To work towards the the “worldview” that HE desires!

Then, we can truly gaze up at our umbrellas

on our own quiet patios, & find a true Peace.