Liberty Bell

Before you call something ugly or not perfect take a look at the Liberty Bell

## Liberty Bell

In a chamber of quiet stone and steady light,

Stands a giant cast in bronze, born of fire and might.

She was meant to ring out perfect, a seamless, golden chime,

To sing a song of freedom across the fields of time.

But silence holds her tongue now, or so the world might say,

Because a jagged line was drawn and took her voice away.

We stare at the fissure, that long and winding scar,

And we think: *“How much more grand she’d be without that jagged mar.”* But look again, my brothers; look closer, sisters dear,

For the crack is why we gather, it’s why we’re standing here.

A smooth and perfect surface is a mirror, cold and plain,

But a heart that’s known a breaking holds the wisdom of the rain.

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### The Divine Design

Perhaps the Great Creator, with a steady, loving hand,

Purposely let the metal break to help us understand.

That a dimple in a smile, or a line upon the face,

Is not a mark of failing, but a monument to grace.

Maybe God didn’t want us as polished blocks of stone,

But as vessels for the light that only through the cracks is shown.

For perfection has no story; it has no path it’s trod,

But a scar is a roadmap of a journey walked with God.

It says: *“I have been tested. I have weathered through the gale.”* It says: *“I am still standing, though the flesh is weak and frail.”* That gap within the copper, ten times more lovely than the whole,

Is the breathing room for spirit—the window to the soul.

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### Our Shared Reflection

To the woman in the mirror tracing lines she wishes gone:

Those marks are just the etchings of a thousand different dawns.

To the man who hides his spirit, fearing he is far too torn:

Your strength is in the mending of the crown that you have worn.

We are all the Liberty Bell, weathered, bronzed, and deep,

With promises to honor and with legacies to keep.

We do not need a flawless song to prove what we are worth,

For the broken are the healers and the beauty of this earth.

It’s the way the light gets captured in the places we are split,

That proves we aren’t just hollow—we are glowing from the grit.

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### The Closing Call

So let us stop the hiding, let us put away the shame,

And find the hidden glory in the shadow of our name.

For we are masterpieces, precisely as we are,

Defined not by the finish, but the beauty of the scar.

It is time to change our vision. It is time to stand tall.

**We need to start looking at things like the Liberty Bell.**

**Written by Eldridge Brown**