Today, I led chapel along with the youth ministry students for the first day of youth emphasis week. We did a Bible study on the life of Joseph, which included an object lesson with tiles, a hammer, glue, and other things.
Basically, we talked about problems that young people have in their lives (losing a loved one, divorce of their parents, discrimination, etc). Each person had a tile on which they wrote problems that young people could have. Then we took a hammer and broke the tiles, talking about how problems in our lives can break us. We then took the pieces and made mosaics out of them, talking about how God takes our broken lives and makes something beautiful out of them.
I think it’s worth mentioning that the pieces still remain, even though God constructs something beautiful out of them. I am in no way saying that our hurts and problems will always be ironed out and that we will live perfect lives. What I am saying is that God wants to transform the horrible things that happen to us into something good, and that we as the church need to come alongside broken people to help them during their crisis. Then, we can see the beauty of God’s restoration and healing, and we will be doing what God calls the church to do.
Click here to see a slideshow of the mosaics each group made.