Crystal Writes A Blog

A Place to Read What "Crystal-Writes"

God Loves To Repair Broken Pieces


AI (Wombo) Broken Heart Gold Repair by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

I have a statement in a few of my bios about how I like kaleidoscopes because I feel like they represent how God sees His creations; they are all beautiful when light, especially God’s Light, shines through them. God is the Master of repairing broken things, and He’s uniquely able to repair broken hearts like no one else can.

The image I made tonight is a representation of a Japanese art form called “Kintsugi.” The article on Wikipedia doesn’t have a lot of images, so do a search to see some amazing transformations, but the link with the word goes to Japan Daily, so it’s got history and images. It’s a Japanese art form of repair done with real gold showing through the cracks and making the restored object more valuable than the original when it was unbroken.

Now, imagine something with even more value than gold (God’s touch) filling the broken places in human hearts and what the value becomes with God’s Holy Spirit making us whole. This clip from the movie Joshua with Tony Goldwyn demonstrates it beautifully and still makes me cry.

If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s old but I highly recommend it. And on the subject of recommendations, I also recommend a wonderful story about a broken woman and her battle to repair herself before letting God do the mending. It’s in the book “The Story of With” by Allen Arnold. The tag line might make you think it’s only a book for creative people, but it’s an amazing and life-changing story that combines a Bible study with a fictional allegory. My sister, who’s not much of a reader, finished it in 2 days and said every Christian should read it. My affiliate link (for tracking) is https://amzn.to/4agQfqu and I’d love to hear comments from those who read it. Also, here’s a video review from someone who read it…

And, finally, just because it sums up the story of someone who loves to see brokenness repaired, here’s a video of Guy Penrod singing The Talley’s song, “She Loves the Broken Ones”…

February 5, 2026 Posted by | Books & Reading, Books and Writings, Christianity, Creative Image Editing, Lyrics and Song, Nonfiction, TV and Movies | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Paper Snowflakes Aren’t As Cold


Online Paper Snowflakes by “Super Snowflake Maker” and Crystal A Murray
(CC BY-NC-SA)

Years ago, I found a wonderful website called ”Snowdays” where you could make online paper snowflakes to your heart’s content. They gave you a virtual piece of paper and a virtual pair of scissors, and you cut the little snips and zigzags just like you once did with a folded piece of paper from childhood. It checked all the boxes for fun, creativity, and surprise when you got to your final creation.

When I tried to visit tonight, I had warnings about the lack of ”https” but felt okay on my private network. Unfortunately, it just said coming soon, so maybe it will be back with a more secure site. In the meantime, I found a similar one called “Super Snowflake Maker” and it yielded the images in the collage above. I love that I could change the background color and also the number of sides/folds I wanted. It’s such a pleasant activity when housebound because you don’t want to go out when the temperature is in single digits with below zero wind chills, but I think it will also be fun in the middle of summer. Visit https://supersnowflakemaker.com/ to make your own, and put a link in the comments if you save them somewhere online.

I will likely add these to Flickr soon and hope I can reconnect with my former “Snowdays Flakers” from the group at https://www.flickr.com/groups/snowdaysflakers/ where no one has posted since 2018 but where you can also see some beautiful images. I plan to make more and use them for various projects and fun edits when I get the chance. In the meantime, you might like this fun book called Fantastic Snowflakes from a friend of mine, Mary Smith of “Home Crafted Artistry and Printing” as it includes step-by-step instructions for making paper snowflakes: (Amazon affiliate link for tracking) https://amzn.to/4rhduYn

If you’re in the colder 2/3 of the US right now, I hope this post leads to some fun that will warm you up a bit. Enjoy! ✨❄️☃️❄️✨

January 25, 2026 Posted by | Books & Reading, Creative Image Editing, Creativity, Nonfiction, Photo Studio Pro app | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

   

The Writer's Desk

Turning Life Into Language

Grace-In-Between

Faith for unfinished seasons

Michelle Lesley

Discipleship for Christian Women

The Bible Through the Seasons

A Three-Year Journey with the Bible

Torah Observant Apostolics

Covenant Apostolic Louisiana

Following Jesus

And Making Disciples

ReubenSipho

Inspirational writer

Crystal Writes A Blog

A Place to Read What "Crystal-Writes"

Released!

Women of Grace inspires and equips women to love and serve God.

The Grammar Sherpa

Your guide through the rocky terrain of grammar, punctuation, and word usage

Kentucky Christian Writers Conference

Equipping Christian Writers

Revealing Truth Today

Standing for the truth and sharing Jesus with others!

Cleanin' Up

Language, Attitude, Health, and Home

American Christian Writers

We help you get into print

Miller Theology

Duane's Miller's commentary on Christianity and culture

Inkspirations Online

A well of inspiration and encouragement for Christian writers

3rd Letter Writers

Telling Stories. Sharing Life.

Quills & Inkblotts

Because the world needs good stories

dwwritesblog

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” — Albert Einstein

Truth in Reality

“Repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

Loved, chosen, & empowered

Learning to follow Christ one day at a time