“We are all broken. That’s how the light gets in.” Ernest Hemingway

I can’t help but laugh whenever I look at this photo. These poor sunglasses finally bit the dust after 12 solid years. The funny thing is, even though they were broken, they still had value. I took a photo, made it black and white, and posted it to my Instagram. I took a broken thing and created something—a creative photograph. Little did I know, I would have a blog one day, and it would fit perfectly into a blog post about broken things. This brings me to a point: brokenness brings out the creativity in creatives. Whether we are creating a project out of discarded items, creating ways to help someone that is struggling, or maybe perhaps the broken person decides to create a solution for themself—it’s the brokenness that drives someone to create a productive solution. Furthermore, many creatives use their creativity as an outlet to express themselves. It’s therapeutic, and is, in a sense, repairing the “brokenness” in them.

God loves broken things. It’s not the perfect, the pristine, the self righteous—no, it’s the ones who have realized they need Him. The Creator, God uses broken things, broken people, to bring Himself glory. It’s through the broken pieces, He is able to move and make us whole—a new creation.

In Japan, broken objects are repaired with gold. The flaw is seen as a unique part of the object’s history which adds to its beauty. When you see an object that’s been repaired with gold, a unique creation, you must realize there’s a creator behind that creation. You must realize that someone saw that broken object and decided it had value. Someone used that broken object to bring themself joy. Likewise, God sees us broken down and even when we have discarded ourselves, He says “You are worthy.” He then repairs us with gold. Whenever you look at a once broken person who allowed God to come and make them whole again, you can see God holding every piece of that person together, and the person is even stronger and more beautiful than before.