In the center console of my car, right behind the drink holders, rests a little alcove. It's the perfect place to stash some coins for quick access should an unexpected toll road present itself. Or, if you're like me, it's the perfect cranny to safely store beach glass.
Some people like to keep a first aid kit on hand in their vehicle. This is wise, no doubt. As is the wool blanket, umbrella, water bottle and reflective triangle LifeHacker suggests as some of the "Essentials" that everyone should have in their car at all times. Oddly enough they left beach glass off the list.
In my car you won't find most of the basic car owner necessities. Thanks to my Dad I have jumper cables but for the rest I'm counting on AAA. Thankfully my lack of "essentials" has left me with plenty of room to fit in the not-so-typical essentials such as the trusty beach glass.
Should I ever end up with a flat tire on the side of interstate seventy-nine the beach glass won't be of particular use. And if I tried to stick it in a parking meter I wouldn't get much time. The beach glass serves a much different purpose. A much greater purpose, if you ask me.
The glass resting in the center console of my car is a daily reminder that God specializes in transforming the broken into something beautiful.
Along the banks of the sea and great lakes the crashing waves carry precious little gems of weathered glass to the beach's sandy shores. Each piece has a history, a story that all started with being broken. A bottle shattered. A ship wrecked, the content spilling into the sea, fragmenting into a million little pieces. The jagged pieces of glass sink to the ocean's floor where they are battered by waters, smashed by waves and scraped with sand for thirty, forty, fifty...even a hundred years.
And then, one day, that broken bottle gets pushed ashore, completely unrecognizable from the piece of debris it used to be. The piece of glass that is revealed is smooth, frosted and rounded. Years spent enduring the squalls of the sea have not ruined the glass, those storms have perfected it.
You and I are much like those pieces of glass. To become beautiful we must first be broken and battered. While the waves crash down upon us our rough edges and jagged imperfections are transformed. God uses the storm to soften that which is too hard. He uses the sand to sanctify, cleanse and renew our spirits.
Each time I look down at my center console and behold the beauty in the beach glass I am reminded of the process of transformation taking place in my life. I am still in the raging waters. I have been broken and now I am being battered for the sake of eternal beauty. The process can be trying but I hold onto God's promises. I am being renewed each day. I am being sculpted and shaped for the sake of the Kingdom. I'm still being made into finished, prized, treasured beach glass. So bring on the waves.
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