Brokenness

I had an experience last week that I’ve shared pretty widely on my personal social media channels, but whose impact was/is so profound on me that I wanted to share with you all.

I have three children, two daughters (5- and almost-4-years-old) and a son who is 2.  Last week, my younger daughter ended up getting glasses quite unexpectedly.  As a result, my husband and I thought it best if we have her older sister checked out, too.  Just to be safe, y’know?

Neither girl had ever complained of eye or head issues.  Teachers never perceived challenges seeing the board or things across the room.  And the girls themselves never mentioned not being able to see or having issues seeing.

So imagine my surprise when my oldest daughter tested with a vision of 130/20 in one of her eyes.  (For comparison’s sake, healthy, non-impaired vision for young children is about 30/20. )  The other eye saw nearly perfectly and has been compensating for this weaker eye for her entire life.

I sat stunned as my daughter’s exam continued.  Even the doctor, assistant, and later the eyeglass provider remarked at how remarkably vast the difference was in her two eyes, and how unbelievable it was that she’d never complained.

My daughter would end the night sporting brand new purple specs.  I would still be thinking about the experience days later.

That stuck with me was this idea that what the world would deem as inoperable, no good, legally blind, or some other trite categorization God had blessed to be perfect.

With the vision my daughter has in her weaker eye, it is truly a miracle that she doesn’t have many more scrapes, bumps, bruises and injuries.  But because of the power of God, to touch an imperfect thing, she’s seeing as close to 20/20 as a child can.

We all have broken places in our lives.  Relationships that left us wounded and scarred.  Bad experiences and past mistakes that have broken our faith, our expectation and motivation.

But God wants to give us peace for our pieces.  He wants to put back together that which the world would say is beyond saving, beyond repairing, beyond earthly good.

God specializes in taking all of our nothingness and making it something.  He is a master at perfecting the imperfect and blessing the unbelievable.

You may think that your situation is too far gone.  The debt is too high.  Your income is too low.  You’ve been hurt too many times; abused too many times.  You’ve made too many bad choices, too many wrong decisions.  You might even believe that now, because of all you’ve been through, you’re no good to anyone.  You’ll never be loved.  You’ll never get promoted.  You’ll never see increase.  You’ll never know peace.  That child will never come home.  That spouse will never act right.

Whatever your never is, I urge you to give it all to God.  The Bible urges us to cast our cares on Him once and for all because He cares for us passionately.

Give all of your broken places and pieces to the one Potter who can put them all together again.

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been walking through life feeling victimized and handicapped.  Perhaps you, like my daughter, have only known one way, one view on life.  You’ve only every known setbacks, let-downs and disappointments.

If you’ll keep walking the path He has for you with joy and gratitude, letting Him have all that you have, He’ll give you perfection.  He’ll give you clarity.  He’ll give you vision.  He’ll give you all the tools you need to walk into a new season with Him and for Him.

You are enough just the way you; broken pieces and all.  And it matter not whether the world sees it or says it.  Heck, it doesn’t even matter whether you see it.  All that matters is that you believe that God sees perfection in you His imperfect being.  And it’s His heart’s desire that you experience abundance – divine perfection and clarity – in every area of your life.

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My daughter loves her glasses .  She loves the color and how she looks in them.  She doesn’t quite understand why she needed them – she’d always been OK with how she was seeing.  But isn’t just like God to show us better when we can show him that we’re grateful for all we already have?

Seek God for the blessing in your brokenness.  There’s one there, if you’d just give the pieces over to Him.