Sea glass is quite beautiful, isn’t it? If it is genuine sea glass we can find it washed up on beaches around the world. It exists in a spectrum of colors…some more readily obtainable than others, of course…but still any color found in its natural state amidst the rock and sand on a coast line is considered a treasure by the hundreds of thousands of sea glass “treasure hunters” that seek and gather-up the unique articles thrust from our seas and oceans.

Typically, the greatest “crop” of sea glass is found after storms; when the waves stir up the bits and pieces from the sandy and rocky bottoms of the ocean. The tumultuous tossing and turning of their watery home…uproots their resting places. As they are turned upside down and tumble through the sandy, salty water…some are dragged across the rocky or sandy depths…unseen by human eyes and likely unnoticed by the sea life that endures the storm alongside.

Here’s the thing about sea glass that I find the most fascinating…it was once a part of a whole “thing” that was broken. It could be a bottle, a jug, a jar, a glass, etc…it was a container for something. It had a purpose, a use. It may have been carefully and lovingly crafted by hand to hold the most exquisite perfume or oil. It may have held the wine or champagne used at a wedding celebration…or to christen a new sea vessel…to celebrate the birth of a child or a financial merger. It may have held holy water…human blood for transfusion…water to quench a wanderers thirst after a long period in the wilderness. The wonderings of the initial uses of these vessels far exceeds my capability to capture them all and include them in this writing. But again, they were once whole and they were broken. Broken, shattered and tossed away. Some may have even been broken during the storm while in the sea…crashing it into a rocky outcrop or cliff bottom. Nonetheless, sea glass is something that begins from brokenness and then begins its transformation into the beautiful, sought after, pieces of glass. I found this to be very insightful and relative to our fragile human condition.

It is within this human condition that I situate myself in reflecting on my Lenten devotional for this day. My wonderings about the differences in the ways that we handle sea glass are in stark opposition to the way in which we see and hold each other when weathering a storm or after a season of storms is thrust upon our lives. Not only that though…but the differences within ourselves and our own brokenness and storms that we endure and weather.

I wonder…what if we searched for each other like we did for sea glass? Valuing and admiring it’s beauty that is a direct result of its transformation and stormy journey?

What if we allowed ourselves to be seen in our raw condition as we endure our storms? What it we allow ourselves to be discovered after our weathering in our wilderness places where we are found? Unmasked and in the open…not hiding or masking ourselves in the artificial, plastic faces and expressions that we typically greet each other with. What if we greeted each other like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son…running out to greet us as he sees us timidly journeying up the path home? What if we journeyed away from the herd as Jesus often did…searching for the lost one to bring back into the fold of the 99 still gathered together? What if we actively searched for each other like the “treasure hunters” combing the beaches for the tiniest glimmer buried in the rocks and sand? What if we spent time considering the journey instead of just the outcome as we held each other?

It is capital T Truth that the most growth and transformative times in our lives come from the storms that we weather and the valleys that we are pushed into. Those are the times where our narratives change and our perspectives, beliefs, values and faith are rocked and tempered into new ways of making meaning of our lives. Would having a loving, supportive companion alongside us in the journey make a difference? Reminding us of the treasure that we already are within our brokenness instead us pushing us forward to envision the lessons that we will one day glean from this season?

One thing that I know with 110% certainty…is that God is with us within our moments of being broken and with our moments of transformation and weathering of our storms of life. God isn’t the cause of these things, of course…and God is also there with us when the storm passes and joy breaks forth in the sunbeams that pierce through the dark skies looming above us and fooling us into believing that the storm will never pass. Same way with the shadows that envelop us in the valleys we journey through and climb our way out of as the sun breaks across the mountaintop behind us…bringing warmth to our bodies and light to our path. And…most true of all…is that God loves us before our brokenness, loves us in our moments of breaking and bending, and loves us through our storm and transformation into the new form that we become. And isn’t that amazing?!?!! You, beloved reader, are loved beyond measure, are held and treasured, and are worthy of being found and cared for.