When we look at the things in our lives that are broken, it’s hard for us to see anything beautiful. When we think of something being beautiful, we imagine things that are perfect. That’s simply not the case when we’re forced to look at an area of life that has been destroyed. Today, if you feel like you’re picking through the pieces of your life that have been broken, allow the Holy Spirit to show you that there is still something beautiful in there.
Brokenness. The word in itself causes us to picture something that has been completely destroyed. Perhaps you can look around your own home and see something that has been broken. Maybe you have experienced the frustration of a careless child breaking a lamp, a vase, or a window. You know that they didn’t mean it to happen, but that doesn’t do anything to remedy the fact that the item was completely destroyed. When we see something that was broken, we typically assume that it needs to be discarded and replaced. Surely, there’s nothing left that can be used when something is broken.
When we’re faced with things in our lives that are broken, the severity is much worse. Maybe, as you’re reading this, you’re dealing with the pain of a broken marriage. Perhaps you didn’t even realize how unhappy your estranged spouse had become, so you never saw it coming. Waking up every day with the pain associated with the end of a relationship is a traumatic experience that renews itself every day.
Maybe you’re dealing with brokenness that comes from the unexpected loss of a loved one. The grief and loss that you’re experiencing are forcing you to think about how different your life will be forever. You’re broken, and you don’t see any way that things will ever be put back together.
Is it really possible for God to turn what’s broken into something beautiful? The answer is yes! If you don’t believe that’s true, you don’t have to look any further than a box of crayons. When a crayon is broken, can it still color? Of course, it can. The brokenness of the crayon doesn’t render it useless. No, it doesn’t look like it once did, but the brokenness doesn’t preclude it from creating something beautiful.
In the same vein, God is able to take the broken aspects of our lives and produce something beautiful from them. It’s OK if you don’t see that possibility from where you’re sitting. The shock of brokenness can leave us struggling to see how anything positive can happen. Before you begin today’s study, ask the Holy Spirit to minister directly to you in your brokenness. Allow the Holy Spirit to shift your focus from the things that are broken to the hope of a better tomorrow.
It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect
Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)
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.
Today, the Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre Museum. Created in 1503, the piece of art has been cited as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.” Take a moment and think about that. The Mona Lisa, which is still considered one of the most beautiful paintings in the world, is more than 700 years old. What you may not realize is that the Mona Lisa is not perfect.
At some point, the Mona Lisa had to be removed from its original frame. The frame that it was originally placed in did not protect it against changes caused by humidity, and a small crack started to form along the top of the picture. Before the piece was put into a new frame, the crack extended all the way down to the hairline of the figure in the picture.
Now, does the crack that is present in the Mona Lisa cause it to be any less beautiful? Would anyone dare say that a piece of art that has been revered for more than seven centuries isn’t a masterpiece because it’s broken? Of course not! To make such a point would be foolish.
In the same way, your brokenness does not preclude you from being a masterpiece. In the verses that precede the one we just read, Paul talks about how we have been brought into God’s family through His unfailing grace and love for us. That’s what makes you a masterpiece. The fact that something is broken in your life doesn’t mean you’re not a masterpiece anymore than it means that the Mona Lisa isn’t a masterpiece. Your life doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.
Brokenness Creates Opportunity for Blessing
1 Kings 17:12 (NLT)
But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of brad in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.”
She was broken. Life was never supposed to be this way. We don’t know what happened to her husband, but clearly, he wasn’t in the picture. Her only son was obviously too young to work, and in those days, women didn’t hold jobs. She was down to nothing and knew that death was imminent. With nothing more than a little flour and a little oil, she had enough materials to make a single piece of bread. Her and her son would eat it, then they would slowly starve to death. Truly, she was broken.
Suddenly, a prophet she didn’t know who represented a God who wasn’t hers (she said, “By the Lord YOUR God), told her to make him something to eat instead. In the midst of her brokenness, he asked for the only thing she had. She could have refused. On the surface, it seemed as though she should have. Instead, she chose obedience.
In light of her obedience, God blessed her abundantly. After she fed Elijah, suddenly, her barrel of flour was full, and so was her bottle of oil. Her and her son weren’t going to live a life of opulence, but they were going to have enough. None of that would have happened if she hadn’t experienced brokenness.
Sometimes you have to look beyond the present to find the beauty in the brokenness. God can create something beautiful from the broken pieces, but it requires obedience and patience.
Embracing the Brokenness Means Letting it Go
Luke 7:37-38 (NLT)
When a certain immoral woman from the city hears he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
Finally, we meet a woman who was broken by her own bad decisions. There is speculation about what her “immoral” condition was, but it’s really not important. Instead, we find hope in the fact that she embraced her brokenness by letting it all go. That seems counterintuitive to us. When we embrace something, we hold on to it. When we let something go, we don’t expect to get it back. However, when she broke an expensive bottle of perfume, she was breaking her past. She was embracing the fact that she was a broken, flawed woman. However, to embrace it, she handed it all to Christ.
Today, don’t run from your brokenness. Instead, run with it. Pick your brokenness up and run as fast as you can to the presence of God. When you get there, give it all to Him. He isn’t afraid of your brokenness. Instead, He longs to take it from you.
A Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, You know that I am broken, but today, I give all my brokenness to You. I know that You can create something beautiful from it, and that I am Your masterpiece. In Christ’s name, Amen.