Skip to main content

I am a Broken Glass

I am a broken glass. And I’m broken not because someone accidently dropped me. I’m broken because I willingly and stubbornly crept to the edge of the cupboard and jumped to the ground. I thought I could fly, and for a moment I was flying. I know I was flying because I could feel the wind rustling against me. It felt so good. I was free of that dusty old cupboard. My parents had always told me not to get too close to the edge, it’s not safe, but I hadn’t listened and I was happy I hadn’t listened. 
Then I found out I could only fall. I was going down, down, down and couldn’t stop. I screamed and tried to go back to my safe place on the cupboard shelf.
But it was too late.
I fell.
I shattered.
There I lay on the ground. My beautiful crystal lay all over the floor tiles. I don’t know how long I lay on that cold floor. I wished I could pull myself back to the way I was so I could climb into a hole and no one would be able to see what I had done. If I had listened to my parents I wouldn’t be where I was. I longed for the cabinet I had once desired to leave.
Then I heard footsteps coming down the hallway. I wanted to be anywhere else.
The door opened with a creak. In came a Man. He looked down at my broken glass. I burned in shame. He gently knelt down to me and said in a gentle voice, “Why are you on the floor?”
“I hated the cupboard and I thought I would be free.” I answered in a small voice.
“Didn’t your parents warn you not to go too close to the edge?”
“Yes,”
“Why didn’t you listen?”
“Because I didn’t want to.”
“How did you get to the floor?”
“I went to the edge of the shelf and jumped.”
“Would you like to be put back together?” He asked.
“I don’t see how.”
“All you have to do is ask.”
I took a deep breath and looked into His eyes, full of compassion. “Please, will you put me back together?”
He didn’t say a word. With great care He picked up all my pieces and set them on the counter. He took out the broom and swept up all the little ones that had moved into the floor boards. Then He took out the some glue and began to put me together.
When He was finished His hands were bleeding from my sharp edges. I had lines from where the glue held my pieces and I was not nearly as beautiful as I has I had been before.
“I look terrible.” I said.
He held up His hands, cut and bloody. “But you are healed. I could have melted you in the fire furnace and made you new. Then my hands would not be cut. But if I had done that you would not remember what happened nor how I restored you.”
“Will I always look like this?” I asked in dismay.
“No, one day I will put you in the fire furnace and make you pure glass again. But until that time comes you must remember what you have done and what I have done to save you.” With that He gently put me back into the cupboard. I heard His footsteps as he walked away. I am very grateful for my Saviour. He bled for me so that I could be whole and one day He will restore me to a perfect glass but until then I will remember the blood spit to make me whole.  

Comments

  1. Beautiful, and so completely true. You have really captured the whole idea of forgiveness, salvation and grace.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Is Your Purpose?

 A couple weeks ago, a young woman asked me, "what is your purpose?" it kind of threw me off. Ok, it really threw me off. It seemed a bit touché to say "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" when she was looking for specifics. And I get why she's asking. My life does seem pretty random. Thirty-two years old, working on my BA, teaching music part time, working at a coffee shop part time, and living at least an hour from my closest family member. On paper it looks...well...it looks random. I get it. Kind of hard to pull a purpose out of the randomness.  I was talking to the Lord about it because sometimes, even for myself, the person living this life, it's hard to find a specific purpose in the randomness. Sometimes I wonder,  when I get to Heaven if I'm  going to have anything to offer God, if while other people show up with their kids, I'm going to hold out empty hands and say "it's just me." I mean, if He wants soldiers to defeat spiri...

Body Image (1)

Contentedly situated in lawn chairs with our toes in the sand and the baby playing on a blanket at our feet, my friend and I watch her girls digging holes or running between the beach and the lake. Periodically, the girls run up to us to display the shells and rocks they've found. At one point, as the girls surround us, one of us adults comments on the baby being chubby (which she is, as a baby should be) after which one of the girls looks at me and says, "you're kind of chubby." She wasn't trying to be rude or smart, she was just being bluntly observant as children are. As I looked at I her and considered an answer, I thought of the baggage of body image that women have carried for generations, and I thought, I don't want her to carry this baggage too. I want better for her.   I replied, "you know, being a little chubby is actually a good thing. Our bodies function better and it helps keep us warm." This deep lesson was probably lost on her as she s...

Wasted Gifts? Wasted Time?

You know how you can read the Bible twice, ten times, a hundred times and yet there's still something you haven't noticed or thought about before? That's basically my relationship with 1 Samuel 16:12-23. This is where Samuel anoints David to be king (first he had to meet all David's other brothers because David was the youngest so he was out taking care of the sheep). After the family dinner with Samuel, the text shifts back to King Saul. Because King Saul had disobeyed God, God had removed His Spirit from Saul and sent an evil spirit to terrorize him. In order to sooth the king's suffering soul, Saul's servants go out looking for someone who can play music to make him feel better.  There's a lot to think about in these short verses but the verse that struck me is verse 18.  Then one of the young men said, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a might man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech, and a handso...