The Broken Ones

  One of my favorite things to do on vacation at the beach, is to look for seashells. It isn't as easy to find nice ones as you might think. The earlier you get on the beach, your chances of finding the best shells are greater.

 Last year and this year I happened to notice something I had never paid attention to: the broken pieces of shells littering the beach. They are overlooked by most people, and just trampled underfoot as people walk over them looking for whole shells. But I really looked at these broken pieces last year, and again this morning. They are very pretty and smooth. Even though they are broken off, they have no rough edges. The ocean has beat them against other shells, rocks, and the ocean itself to smooth off the rough edges, leaving various sizes of smooth slightly curved pieces of shells.

  I picked up several last year, but never took them home. I started collecting them this morning and plan on taking them home. What I will do with them, I have no idea.... but they are too attractive to me to pass up and leave lying on the beach.

 And they carry a powerful lesson, these broken shells. Many of us have all been broken in some way, some of us more than others. The devil likes to convince us that we are worthless and that God cannot use people who are broken. Yet, just like these shells are attractive in their broken condition, so are we to God. No matter how far we have gone, no matter how much we have messed up what we think His plan is for our lives, and no matter how broken we are..... God loves us and can use us.

  There are uses for shells that are broken that won't work for whole shells. And God can use those people who have been broken in ways He could never use those who never have, or those who would never admit to their broken condition,