Broken and Mended

Linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday.  Join us, if you can.  You will be so encouraged by this brave community of writers who link arms every Friday to write for five minutes flat.  Today's word prompt is Glue.

Go.

I knew, when I saw the box, that my special wedding glasses were shattered.  We were getting married in 5 months, and I moved across the country from Texas to Massachusetts.  I moved all of my precious belongings, including these special Mickey and Minnie toasting glasses that the family I babysat for gave to me when I was still single, longing for a husband.  It wasn't that the glasses shattered that broke my heart, but all that they represented.  There was no way to repair them.

Those glasses were a metaphor for brokenness that was happening in my life.  A year earlier, I lost my best friend, unexpectedly.  I began to doubt and question God, and wondered why I was feeling the way I felt.  I couldn't really wrap my head around the things going on around me.  My aunt, who was more like a grandmother, had only passed away 4 months before she did, so the wound was still raw from missing her more than I ever thought I could miss anyone.

For years, I longed to see the goodness of God, but I couldn't see past my own brokenness, blinded by the shards of glass.  Broken people are like broken glass.  Sharp edges cut deep.  The saying is true that hurting people, hurt people.  I was broken, and was the center of my world.  I didn't want people too close, so I pushed old friends away and thought they were the selfish ones.  It took years for me to find new friends, and to allow the vulnerable places to show.  I could not have done that without Jesus at the center of it all.

Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end.  Jesus, the One and Only.  He is the Glue that mended those broken places for me.  I am still learning to be open and vulnerable in certain places, and He's still there with the glue of His love and word to mend those broken places.

end.