Broken Things

There’s a program I like to watch on TV about competing teams of interior designers who are given several hundred dollars for the challenge of choosing a few flea market items to refurbish and re-sell at the same flea market for a profit. The team that sells their re-designs for the highest earnings receives all the money at the show’s end. 

The designers choose objects that are broken, worn, damaged, old, ugly and possibly considered useless. They possess a passion for creative imagination and an eye for seeing something that is not yet there, turning discarded stuff into something people want. They restore value.

Just before Jesus began his ministry, scripture tells us, he was in the synagogue reading aloud this portion of Isaiah 61:

"And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

 ^“Then,” Luke 4:16-21 says, “He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus came to this planet wrapped in an earth suit – flesh and blood- to restore beauty and value to a broken world; to take us back where we have always belonged, into an intimate relationship with God our Father.

As Master Designer, God lovingly sorts through the scrap heap of our lives and sees us for who we can be rather than what we are. He sets our life on a path of repair and redemption the minute we yield everything we have and are to Him.

Feeling ugly, tattered, damaged, and useless? Though you may see yourself as such, your value has never once diminished inside God’s plan. He proved His obsession for your restoration by paying for it with the life of His Son. 

Are there pieces and parts of you that are shattered, incomplete or in disrepair? Broken things are God’s specialty. 

Surrender all your brokenness to God and allow Him a divine re-design. The process may be inconvenient and even painful at times, but endure it with gladness. 

When God revalues a broken thing the results are priceless and beyond astounding, because that is exactly what you are in His eyes!

Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

Philippians 1:3 & 6 “I thank my God every time I remember you… being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.^”

The Heart of God

What is God’s view of our fallen, messy world? 

I can answer this by telling you about Lisa, a woman with developmental delays who attends Joyful Noise, a local, weekly church service for adults with disabilities.Most of the time  Lisa is happy and smiling. She laughs hard and loud when something strikes her funny and she sings, claps and whoops it up without reservation during the worship portion of the gathering. I can’t help but smile whenever I’m around Lisa. 

During prayer time however, she takes on a whole new demeanor. As prayer requests are given for a host of needs, illness, death, injury, family problems and job loss, Lisa cries. She is deeply and genuinely touched by the suffering of others and as each prayer need is vocalized her tears flow harder and faster until someone else in the group is moved to bring her tissues and a comforting pat on the shoulder or back 

As I sat a few rows back and observed Lisa this past week, I have to admit my initial thought was a nonchalant, 'Lisa is crying again.'

Immediately I had a God thought interrupt the deepest part of my being. 

“Lisa is My heart. Look at her and see Me. My heart also breaks as I cry for the suffering of My children and My creation.” 

These questions have been asked over and over throughout generations of humanity; is God interested in the condition of the world? Where is He when devastation, hunger, tragedy and evil overwhelm us? Does He even notice the pain, suffering, loss and evil we see and hear about every day? And if He does, why doesn’t He do something about it? 

He already did. He came as one of us, wrapped in a body of flesh, walked and lived among us, revealed the Father’s loving heart and then willingly died for every sad and sorry condition known to mankind. Jesus revealed this brokenness of heart when he looked out over Jerusalem and lamented. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!’ (Luke 13:34). 

Tragedy and suffering was not in God’s original plan. He created a perfect earth and a perfect human but left the door of free will open, fully understanding the risk that man could slip through that portal of choice and mess it all up. But He did it anyway, even with the knowledge we would break His heart, because He wanted someone to love and someone to love Him back. 

As we move into the Christmas season remember why Jesus came. He has a ‘Lisa’ heart and He cries for and cares about you.

Luke 4:18 (NKJV) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.