Broken Shells

by Paula Veloso Babadi

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”—Psalm 34:18

I recently spent a day with some family on the beach at Daytona. Although it’s the “dog days” of summer, we were blessed with a light breeze, refreshing salty air, and cold waves. We enjoyed a terrific time together.  

I believe sand and sea are God’s healing gifts, and I am reminded of a December day over 30 years ago.  My husband and two young sons enjoyed lunch with a family friend at his home on the shores of Ponte Vedra Beach. As my sons ran off looking for sharks’ teeth and my husband chatted with his friend, I ventured beyond the graceful French doors that opened onto the ocean. Amid inhaling the crisp salt air and reveling in the cool breeze, I felt a twinge of sadness as I eyed the broad expanse of broken shells before me. How much we humans are like these shells—huddled together, separate, yet one on the canvas of creation.

Today, along miles of shoreline, there still are jewels, brushed and polished by the repeated breaking of waves and warmed to a glow by sunshine on clear (and even cloudy) days. Even though life is good, that day, I felt broken inside, just like the shells. But as the sun warmed my arms, I knelt to take a closer look. Our wise Creator gifted me with the hope of repurpose and repair, and the vision of being whole in Him. Whether crushed or damaged, we are part of His perfect painting: His polished masterpiece.  That vision gave me hope, then and now, and inspired the poem I wrote below.

Broken Shells

by Paula Veloso Babadi

Broken shells upon the shore

washed in by gentle waves once more,

paint the sand with shattered dreams—

their beauty lost in fragments.

One masterpiece in the array,

amidst the broken pieces lay

too well concealed for me to see

its beauty on the canvas.

Though I am broken-pieced this day,

God’s healing sun and ocean spray

brush me into a form anew

whole again amidst the broken shells.

Copyright Paula Veloso Babadi 2025

Edited by Gabriella Batel