“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
‘Therefore I hope in Him!’”
Lamentations 3:22-24
This morning I suddenly realized that it was my friend’s birthday! I definitely couldn’t let it go by unnoticed, so in the afternoon I pulled the bins out from under my bed. Being somewhat of a minimalist at heart, I sometimes want to throw away all the “junk” I keep in those bins, but I keep it anyway, knowing that sometimes there comes a time when I need it…
Rummaging through the bins, I pulled several things out: a piece of wrapping paper saved from a gift five years ago, a roll of washi tape that my sister had been throwing away, a random piece of pearl-green paper with ink smudges on one side, a sheet of Bible verses I’d printed out at least last year. From that I fashioned a beautiful card for my friend’s birthday.
*****
“For He bruises, but He binds up;
He wounds, but His hands make whole.”
Job 5:18
“Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.”
Psalm 51:8
“And whoever falls on this stone [Jesus] will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
Matthew 21:44
All these verses speak of God bruising, breaking, His beloved people. We don’t often think of God like that. But somehow, there’s a blessing in the breaking.
You see, when it is done by our loving heavenly Father, every breaking, every bruise and every wound is grace. In that moment, we learn how to trust. He is still good and still God, and someday He will make this beautiful. He wounds, but His hands bind up. Who wouldn’t want Jesus to make their life more beautiful than they could ever imagine, in their wildest dreams?
Beyond that, there’s something called empathy. In short, it means that (for example) only people who’ve had a broken leg will know what it feels like to have a broken leg, and they will be able to sympathize with others who have broken legs in a way that most people can’t. Nobody wants to be broken, but after the fact, it’s nice to be able to say to someone, I really do know what that feels like.
Only brokenness can be healed. Only brokenness can heal others.
*****
Dear friend, maybe today you are like the bin of junk under my bed. Maybe your life is just random pieces that have been sitting there for years and years. Maybe you’re sitting there in the darkness, seeming only to be good for being thrown away.
But today, today there is a hope for you. Jesus wants to fashion your life into something beautiful, just like the card I made for my friend’s birthday. The healthy don’t need a doctor. People don’t fashion something beautiful out of something that was already beautiful, and neither does Jesus. He takes the most ugly, most broken, and that’s what He uses to make the most beautiful.
Only brokenness can be healed.
Join me in two weeks for Part Two.
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