Beauty in Brokenness

I love walking on the beach, listening to the peaceful rhythm of the waves while searching for seashells.  At first, I’m always looking for the perfect ones.

The ones that are whole. Smooth. Flawless. Untouched.  But the truth is, those are surprisingly rare.  Instead, the shoreline is covered with broken shells.

Some are chipped. Some are cracked. Others have been worn smooth after years of being tossed by waves, battered against rocks, and rubbed by grains of sand. Storm after storm has reshaped them. Time has changed them.

Yet somehow…

They’re still beautiful.  I would even say more beautiful.  Life has a way of tossing us around too, doesn’t it?  The storms we never saw coming.

The heartbreak of broken relationships. The grief we carry.  The diagnosis we didn’t expect.  The betrayal.  The disappointment.  The waiting.

The physical struggles that leave us exhausted.  The prayers that seem unanswered.  The lies of the Enemy whispering that we’re just damaged goods.

Little by little, those waves can leave us feeling chipped, cracked, and worn down.  Sometimes we look in the mirror and all we see are the places we’ve been broken…all the imperfections.  

But God sees something entirely different.  He sees beyond the cracks.  One of the things I notice every time I collect shells is that many of them are weathered on the outside—chipped, faded, and rough from years of being tossed by the sea. But when I turn them over, the inside is something to behold.

Smooth.  Shimmering.  Beautiful.  The storms had weathered the outside, but they hadn’t stolen the beauty within.

Isn’t that just like God?  The world tends to judge what it can see—our scars, our failures, our weariness, the places life has left their mark. But God looks somewhere entirely different.

People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7

While life may leave us looking different on the outside, He is continually transforming us from the inside out. Sometimes the greatest beauty He creates isn’t what others see first. It’s the character, faith, compassion, humility, and dependence on Him that could only be formed through the storms.

The same waves that chip a shell also smooth its rough edges and reveal textures and colors that were hidden before. What appears ruined is often simply being reshaped.  That is exactly what God does with us.  He never wastes a storm.  He doesn’t discard what is broken.  He redeems it.

He takes every hardship, every tear, every disappointment, every scar, and weaves it into a story that displays His faithfulness.  Our brokenness doesn’t diminish our beauty in God’s eyes.

It magnifies His grace.

The shells that catch my attention aren’t the perfect ones.  They’re the ones with character.  The ones that tell a story.  The ones that have clearly survived the waves.  Maybe that’s why they’re beautiful.  Maybe that’s why you’re beautiful too.  If you’ve been feeling worn down lately, remember this:

The waves may have changed you, but they haven’t destroyed your worth.  The storms may have left scars, but they haven’t erased God’s purpose.

The Enemy may try to convince you that broken means unusable, but time after time, God choses broken people to display His glory.  Your story isn’t over. The same God who created every shell on that beach is still shaping you with loving hands.

As Paul reminds us:

So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace… There’s far more here than meets the eye.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (MSG)

One day you’ll look back and realize that what felt like it was breaking you…was actually becoming part of the masterpiece He was creating.

After all,

We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

Ephesians 2:10

So the next time you’re walking the beach, don’t just look for the perfect shell.  Pick up one that’s broken. Turn it over.  Look closely.  See the beauty that still remains.  

Then remember…God sees you the same way!

Every time I come back from one of my beach walks, my husband asks me the same question:  “What are you going to do with all these broken shells?”

I always smile and tell him the same thing.

“I’m keeping them.”  Because to most people, they’re just broken shells.  To me, they’re reminders.  Reminders that beauty isn’t found in perfection.

They remind me that God specializes in taking what this world considers broken and creates something beautiful.

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Morgan Morgan is the founder and visionary of Feast Together and co-founder of SALT Talks, where she’s passionate about creating meaningful spaces for people to connect with God, one another, and their local community.

When she’s not dreaming up the next gathering, you’ll probably find her with a good book in hand, needlepointing, calling “Mahjong!” (her newest obsession), or squeezing in a game of pickleball. She believes some of life’s best conversations happen around a table—and that hospitality has the power to change lives.

Morgan and her husband, Doug, are embracing the empty-nest season while cheering on their college-aged son from afar. They live in Raleigh, North Carolina, with Tucker, their spoiled Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who keeps life entertaining.