I have been meditating on brokenness lately, and that usually leads me to thinking about mosaics. At the school where I work, the art teacher runs a session for pupils on mosaics, using coloured paper rather than glass or stones for the mosaics they make. I’m constantly amazed by the pupils’ ingenuity and skill in using the tiny pieces and making them into a beautiful picture.
Most mosaics are made of small, flat, roughly square, pieces of stone or glass of different colours, known as tesserae. Some, especially floor mosaics, are made of small rounded pieces of stone, and called “pebble mosaics”. Other materials used include beads and shells. They are often found on floors and walls and were one of the earliest forms of decorative art.
What fascinates me about mosaics is how something which is broken into tiny, apparently meaningless pieces can become something beautiful, telling a story that is much bigger than its composite parts. The picture below tells the story of Ulysses and was probably made in the 2nd century A.D.
Our lives can often seem broken, our control of situations smashed by circumstances, our security and happiness devastated by life, as the story of Job demonstrates. Yet the Bible firmly declares that God is able to make something beautiful out of brokenness and is able to restore our broken, shattered pieces into a picture that is breath-taking in its beauty. In the fine detail of a mosaic, it may be hard to see the overall picture, but we have to rest in the fact that God sees the overall picture and is working on our lives, even when we cannot see His hand or feel His presence.