"Treasured Creations"
The Xaris youth, based on passages from Genesis 1 and Psalms 139, were
encouraged to think about how they were created in God's image and to try to
see themselves as special, unique, treasured creations of God. Based on
this, each youth then painted a ceramic tile that depicted how they saw
themselves through God's eyes. There was a time of sharing at the end of
the meeting where each youth shared their creation with the group.
The following week, the youth arrived to find that their tiles had been
broken. It was explained that it was done on purpose, reflecting
brokenness/sin/the Fall. They were asked to reflect on the following
questions: When we are broken, how do we feel? When we are broken, how does God feel? Do these feelings coincide all the time?
The youth were then given the opportunity to try to fix their tiles and take
them home (reflective of our attempts to "fix" our own lives) or to break
their tiles into smaller pieces themselves, indicating their recognition and
admission of their own brokenness. A cross was drawn on a cardboard and the
youth were invited to write aspects of their brokenness on the back of each
broken tile piece and to bring it "to the cross" where the broken pieces
would be transformed into a mosaic.
The symbolism of this activity included:
- We are broken, regardless of whether we want to be or know we are.
- What do we do with our broken pieces? - we can bring our broken pieces
to the cross, offer them to God.
- Allowing God to "make us a new creation" - we are no longer the original
tiles we were meant to be, but out of the broken pieces, God can make
something anew.
- Allowing God to make us anew does not mean we give up the pieces of who we are. Everything is still there. But God joins us, and gives us His
identity as well -- he takes what is broken, and shapes us more and more to
be like Him, desires to make us Christ-like.
- The final picture is beautiful. And it does not come about just on our
own - God takes the broken pieces of who everyone is, and in the context of
community, shines His light on us, and makes a beautiful reflection of who
HE is, a reflection of His grace, healing, and redemption of our brokenness.
Pictures