Sand Dollars and Broken Glass
photo from Big Box of Art

It’s been four months now.  Four months since our lives tipped over, spilled out, righted again and left us with a new equilibrium, left us seeking a new balance.

A sweet sister in Christ gave a talk this week about Hannah, it left me thinking.  Thinking of those childless years for her, the joyful gift of baby Samuel.   And how, when he was so very young, she kept her promise and gave him up. How, though she was his mother, all she could do was make him a little robe each year. How she must have stitched her love for him up in those garments, woven what could have been into the fabric that would hold him when she couldn’t.

I promised, too.  Promised to live His will and to be at peace with whatever the outcome.  How hard it is, sometimes, to keep a promise.  And, then, what does it mean to be at peace?  How do you do this? When suffering is what you are called to do, when the outcome isn’t peaceful.  The physical noise and turmoil in my life when the babies were here with us some days is so much less than the emotional turmoil in my heart now that they are gone.

On the outside, things look the same.  Days go on like they used to, life goes on.  There are blessings everywhere, washed up on the shore in the wake of the year we spent parenting those two precious souls. I see the growth, like opalescent seashells shining there in the wet sand.  I see the love, gleaming gem-like against the washing waves.  I see the way we have learned to depend on God, the way He has broken us, the way He has arranged the pieces into something more able to hold all that He has planned for us.  I see the things we have learned and the ways we have changed like treasures there in the tidepools, sand dollars bearing the marks of the cross, their shells protecting five small doves.

And I see the glass that washed up, too.  Sharp, broken edges embedded there in on the beach, cutting deep.  I feel it, an undercurrent of anxiety that wakes me at night.  The dark uncertainty, the helpless feeling of knowing them, longing to mend their broken hearts, their broken lives. I have dreams of losing things, frightening dreams in which our children are in danger. Somehow these days I feel more tired, more wrung out than I did while juggling five children and a full, busy schedule. My mind seems to be tip-toeing around the broken glass, trying quietly to avoid it while continuing to carry on as though it were not there.

Maybe I need to just sit down, let the water wash over us, add the salt of my tears to the waves that wash over it all.  Maybe I need to give up trying to pick my way around it and let God in His time wash the sharp edges off the brokenness, turn the ugly shards of hurt into polished gems of beach glass. Maybe I need to weave little robes from the fabric of my grief and send them out on the waves, bright spots moving toward a distant horizon.

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10 thoughts on “Sand Dollars and Broken Glass

  • April 18, 2012 at 6:27 pm
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    You are my neighbor at imperfect prose today. I’m so sorry for your grief at the emptiness left by your foster children. Thank you for expressing it so eloquently. “little robes from the fabric of my grief”–so beautiful a turn of phrase. I feel your heartache in these words. May the Father of mercies comfort you in your affliction. Only He can, but He can indeed make beach glass out of this.

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  • April 18, 2012 at 6:59 pm
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    Your post lead me to this prayer out of Beth Moore’s Praying God’s Word:

    “The Lord will do great things for me, and I will be filled with joy. I will sow in tears, then I will reap with songs of joy. If I go out weeping, carrying seeds to sow, I will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with me. (Psalm 126: 3, 5-6) O God, please help me to be willing to sow the seed of Your Word and water it with my years, believing You even in the midst of terrible pain. If I do, You will be faithful to fill me with joy again. You will faithfully bring a harvest forth from my life. My suffering will not be in vain.”

    Welcome to SDG.

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  • April 18, 2012 at 7:48 pm
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    Linked up behind you at Imperfect Prose. Bless you for loving those 2 foster kids. I can feel your grief and I am praying that God will indeed comfort you and that you will see our resurrected Lord bring new life out of this death/loss. Only He can. Bless you.

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  • April 18, 2012 at 10:45 pm
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    oh, friend. I feel your heart here. and this? “Maybe I need to just sit down, let the water wash over us, add the salt of my tears to the waves that wash over it all.” yes, maybe it is time to rest. all the best to you and your family.

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  • April 19, 2012 at 1:34 am
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    Visiting from SDG…
    praying for you, sister as you endure such heartache and yet, are able to see the Father’s goodness in it all. In your heartache, HE IS…

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  • April 19, 2012 at 3:13 am
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    oh friend. i am crying for your pain. and sitting with you here, in your brokenness. you are not alone. e.

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  • April 19, 2012 at 1:58 pm
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    this is hard…i am sorry and glad the foster kids had your love…and the shells and glass they both come…i am encouraged by the end in the realization that tip toe-ing around the glass still leaves it there on the beach…when the broken places can be made something beautiful..

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  • April 20, 2012 at 3:58 pm
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    Thank you for sharing at this point in the journey. You know, I think I have a fear of grief.

    I’ve been wondering what to do with the shards. This helped me: “Maybe I need to give up trying to pick my way around it and let God in His time wash the sharp edges off the brokenness, turn the ugly shards of hurt into polished gems of beach glass.”

    ..especially the “in His time” part.

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  • May 8, 2012 at 5:30 pm
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    Miss E. –

    I am sorry I missed this when it was first posted. (My bad.) Ya know, I don’t do that email, follow, subscribe thing so sometimes it’s hit or miss with me–even with my dearest friends.

    You and yours are such an inspiration.

    Don’t let the enemy rob you of what you did with your Jesus skin on. Rejoice in the beauty of it. The seeds that were planted. The love that was shared. All that.

    And know you are held in palm of His hand. All of the time.

    Blessings.

    Reply

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