Sometimes my children break something glass, a dropped plate or cup shatters all over the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, I know what you have been told, but let me be the bearer of the truth: Corelle breaks! For some reason their instinct is to start picking up the broken pieces on their own, but I yell at them, not anger but urgency in my voice. "Stop! Get back! Let me do it!" I know better. I know that picking up the broken pieces will only hurt them. Once they are safely sitting down, hands and feet away from the sharp and scattered bits that could harm them, I take care of the mess. I might use my hands to carefully pick up the largest pieces. I use the broom and dust pan to sweep up the rest, using my trained eyes to make sure no piece goes unnoticed to be stepped on by surprise later. I think we are the same way, broken people--lives, hearts, and souls shattered by failures, addiction, rejection, abuse, discouragement. We try to pick up the mess. As we gather up the pieces, we own them, holding the now sharp pieces in our bare hands. The lies produced by the events of our lives dig deep. We feel worthless, shameful, helpless, alone, violated, and hopeless. We are hurt. At least we have picked it all up though, or so we think. We have a handle on things; it is all under control, until we are surprised. We step on a hidden piece of our brokenness. There is One though, who does not want us to pick up the mess. Jesus is telling us, "Stop! Get back! Let me do it!" He can use his carefully trained eyes; eyes that see every corner that's shadows may hide pieces of our shattered soul. Not only can Jesus clean up the entire mess, He can carefully put it back together, not sweeping us into dust pan and dumping us in the trash, but restoring us to what we were created to be, reestablishing our beauty and our usefulness. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV). Won’t you give Jesus your mess? Let go of the pieces. Let yourself heal and watch as you are made new! “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV).
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