“Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life” ~ Parker J. Palmer

I don’t know if you have ever had one of “those” weeks?  Over the last week my ice maker in my fridge broke, my phone camera broke, and my computer camera broke.  After hours of talking with the experts, only to determine I needed to pay someone to fix my issues, or buy new devices that cost a lot of money, my friend said to me, “Well it comes in 3’s so you should be done now”.   Whoever said that originally lied, because last night my toilet was running, so I took the tank lid off to see what the problem was, and then dropped the tank lid resulting in the tank lid being in pieces! Then, I finally got in my car to run out to the store, and noticed my windshield had cracked!  I literally laughed out loud,  and said “Ok, God what is the point here?”  I really felt like crying, but sometimes when it is so obvious you’re being taught a lesson, you just have to laugh!

Over my lifetime I have, as have most of us, experienced times of great sorrow, dreams that came crashing down, and extreme disappointments.  However, when you lose a “Loved One” to death, your heart doesn’t just break, but your entire life and everything you knew are completely shattered!  The life you created thus far, and every dream or plan you had for your future lies on the floor in a million pieces.  It’s one of those breaks that you know there is no expert who can be called in to “fix it”, no super glue strong enough to hold it together, and no directions that you can follow to piece it back together again.  What you’re left with is a bunch of jagged pieces that don’t even seem to go together, like a 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzle without the box, and without half the pieces.  Complete brokenness is where God does His finest work, because if your life was just “Bent out of shape”, you, as I, would think “Given enough time, I can fix it!”.  It isn’t until WE are broken beyond repair that we cry out to God for help.  The problem with this thinking is “WE ARE ALL BROKEN BEYOND REPAIR”, and trying to “Fix” yourself only leads to more brokenness and heartache, because anything outside of God and God alone, is looking for answers in all the wrong places. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God “.  That is why we need a Savior!

I have a patio stool that I made into a mosaic table with broken glass.  I remember when I was making it thinking I don’t know what in the world all of this broken glass could become, or how it would fit into something beautiful.  Once I could look beyond the brokenness, and had a Vision of what I wanted it to look like, each piece seemed to fit exactly where it needed to.  And the pieces that were a bit too thick, jagged, or long were gently broken again in order to complete the vision.  So it is with us!  God has had a Vision of our Life for His Purpose and Plan from birth to our last breath.  He was not surprised or taken off guard when our life as we knew it was shattered into a million pieces, because He can see beyond the brokenness, and see our life in whole from the first breath we breathe until the last breath we take.  He knows the beginning from the end, it’s just He allows us to walk it out one day, one hour, one minute at a time!   He knows where each piece will fit to create the beautiful masterpiece He is creating even now in the midst of the darkest night of our soul!  Will this be the last of our brokenness?  No!  He know the pieces of our life (pride, self-sufficiency, anger, performance, addictions, disconnectedness, etc.) that still needs gently breaking to fit into the Vision and Plan He has for us!  He assures us in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, Plans to give you hope and a future”.

The good news is with each piece of our shattered life we surrender to God, he can take it, form it, and place it into the Vision He has for us.  It is when we grab onto our pieces with clinched fists trying to “fix” what is broken, because we want things the way they “used” to be, or the way we think is best that we cause ourselves more pain, confusion, and brokenness! Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. God doesn’t want to just “Repair” us, He wants to “Restore Us to Brand New”!  Before we know it, we will look up and see a Brand New Life that is more than we could have ever asked or imagined!  Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”!

Father forgive me when I think I can “fix” what is wrong in my life.  Help me to learn to turn to You FIRST, because Your way is ALWAYS better than mine!