I was thinking this morning about one of my favorite places from my time in Johnson City, TN and it was a catholic church there named St. Mary’s.  One of the reasons that i loved this place so much was the above mosaic…its a picture of the risen Christ in front of a broken earth…

i would sit in front of this and think on life, love, and Christ, and it never failed, i came away knowing that i was a beloved son of this King, where i came away knowing that this art was so much more for me - it was the story of salvation.  A broken world, which we all know, see and feel all around us, was met head on by a God who loved us - and the world - so much that he would send his son, his only son to take on flesh, coming in the frail form of humanity.  Assuming this life on this broken world to restore the world. Leaving the hallowed halls of his heavenly throne room where he was a King, to enter the world where he was born in filth amongst livestock and hay, where he was the son of a carpentar and a woman who was culturally ostracized for his very birth…and i am reminded of perspective…i am reminded of how deep the Father’s love is for us…

in a time where there are so many influences on us, from society, work, marketing, peers…in a time where there is so much brokeness around us - in our families, marriages, relationships, in our communities, in our politics, in our world….sometimes we need perspective…sometimes we need to be reminded of the real story we are involved in, of the story of God’s unfailing love, the story of his sacrifice, his grace, his healing.

Sometimes we need to sit and know the God who cared enough to make things right, to know the one who loved us even in our messiness, who took on flesh dwelling among us to free us from this life of slavery, to free us from the brokeness, to free us from fear, and to impart life to us - to our very breath we breathe, to our bones, to the core of who we are, to give us this perfect love that drives away fear….

This is our God, this is the vision of what he has done, and in the mosaic of the resurrected Jesus we also see the vision of the future, of a God accomplishing what he said he would do, we see a resurrected Lord and from the scriptures we see the story unfolding to a resurrected world with no more brokeness, pain, and sin. 

So as we get closer to Holy week, may we gain perspective, think on our reality, but slow down enough to see it how it really is, not how life would give it to us….and may we know this season, that this God who took on flesh, living in our world, walking on the same dirt, has made a way for all things to be made right…and this mosaic lived out is beauty unimaginable…God transforming what was broken into something whole.