The Mom lessons...."Beautiful in the Broken"

Anyone who knew my Mom had a story about her.  She was a hoot.   But she didn't really mean to be. She was just one of the most unique people that God ever created... I kid you not.  All my friends have constantly asked me to write a book about her.  The "Mom stories" are classic with my friends and family, and maybe someday I'll start that book.  In the meantime, I guess I'll have to let some blogposts do the talking for now.   So let the "Mom lessons" begin....

She saw beautiful in the broken.

One of the things that used to drive me NUTS about my Mom was her penchant for buying broken things.  Our house was seriously decorated with things she bought out of bargain bins from stores all over the country.  I remember one of her favorite places to shop was the back corner of Kirkland's, where they would literally have big barrels full of broken or damaged merchandise, all marked off to a fraction of the cost.   She would literally spend hours digging through those barrels, picking out things like ceramic birds with a wing or tail broken off... or refrigerator magnets that now had the magnet missing off the back.  There was a drawer in the kitchen full of those magnets.  I would always ask her, "Mom what is the point of buying these refrigerator magnets when there is no magnet on the back so you can't put them ON the refrigerator?".  "Well," she would say,  "One of these days, I'm going to buy some magnets and glue the new magnets on the back, so that I'll be able to use them."   Apparently, at some point after I grew up and left home, she found the time to get those magnets and glue them on... however, she didn't center the magnets on the backs properly, so one weekend, when I came home for a visit from college, I found a ton of new magnets, hanging on the fridge, but every single one of them was crooked.  Gravity pulling one side down farther than the other because the weights are out of whack.  Did she care??  Not in the least.  She loved her crooked refrigerator magnets.   Of course being the little diva/brat that I was back then, I would always make some mean comment about how awful they looked and why couldn't she just buy regular refrigerator magnets like the rest of the world does....  and she would just roll her eyes and say, "Why do you have to always want things done like everyone else does them?"  .. and I would say something smart-ass like, "Well, there MIGHT be a reason why EVERYONE ELSE does things the same way Mom.", then I'd roll my eyes and storm into my room.  I just didn't "get" it back then.   I just didn't "get" her.  But now I do.

She saw beautiful in the broken.

The ceramic birds... each one with a little flaw.  A wing broken off.  A chip in the tail.

The potted plants.... each carefully placed around our house so that no one would actually notice the big hole in the back of the pot.  

The cross-stich pillows that said, "God bless this hous" or "We come" (instead of Welcome) because one of the letters in the cross-stiching had come out.

All of those things drove me NUTS as a child.  I used to say "What IS this place?  The land of the misfit toys???"    Why can't we live like normal people?????

I get it now.

She saw beautiful in the broken.

Just like Jesus.

What a gift.  

What a legacy.

What other people thought was trash, she saw as a treasure.

I think we should all see the world more like my Mom did... and like Jesus did.  He didn't turn away from someone because they weren't beautiful in the world's eyes.   He didn't give up on someone because they were flawed.  He didn't reject anyone because they might be "damaged".   No, Jesus was drawn to the flawed, the damaged, the broken. 

Yesterday, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with her broken ceramic bird collection.  "WHO would want that?". I wondered.   Today, I wouldn't part with it for a million dollars.  And when people see those birds at my house, i'll have a little story to tell 'em...   :-)

I love ya'll..... M