Many times when we see the word broken, we unintentionally connect words like weak, ugly, and un-fixable. Let’s go ahead and throw those words out and think about brokenness in a new way. What if we replaced those negative words and paired it with words like; strong, beautiful, and made new? Let’s face it, we are all broken in different variations of the term. Whether we are dealing with depression, healing from past scars, losing a loved one, etc., we all experience brokenness throughout our whole lives.
I want to paint a picture for you guys. Imagine a vase. When vases are first made, they are new, fragile, and look identical to other vases. Yes, they are beautiful, but like the vases in the picture below, they all look the same.
In life, things happen that cause us to break down and going through brokenness is not easy. No one really yearns to be broken because we feel things like pain, hurt, loneliness, and suffering.
The thing is, we need to experience brokenness to become stronger and whole again. When we rely on the Lord to piece us back together, we are made new! Sometimes, though, we rely on other outlets to fix our broken pieces. Try to imagine putting a shattered vase back together with bubble gum. It may hold for a few seconds but will crumble again at the slightest touch. When we look to other things/people to “fix” us it is only temporary. I challenge you (myself included) to think about this question; what are you using to hold yourself together?
Take a look at this vase. It is made completely of broken pieces. No, it’s not perfect, but it I can guarantee that there is no other vase like it in the whole world. I look at this and see beauty. It is obvious that it is made of broken pieces, but those cracks and imperfections show that it has lived life! God created us to be unlike anyone else! No, He doesn’t want us to be broken, but He is there for us through those hard times and to help piece us back together. Brokenness is something we deal with everyday but these experiences shape us into who He is creating us to be. We won’t look like we did before, but we come out of seasons or brokenness as a beautiful, new creation!
And that, my friends, is what it looks like to be beautifully broken.
