After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” John 6:12
If you examine that little clay hand print from so many years ago you’ll see tiny cracks that cover the entire priceless piece of art created by my six year old. You’ll see one huge crack where it had broken altogether, glued so that it would be whole again. I look at it and I know that some of those cracks were created by me. This precious little hand that will soon turn 40, still cracked and a little bit broken, just like it’s creator. Broken, battered, scarred and yet fully alive and mending. You see, God never wastes our hurts. He sees us and meets us in our brokenness and picks up all those pieces so that not one moment of our lives is wasted. No one piece left on the ground to be whisked away like trash.
God can take every bit of our broken lives are turn the into something magnificent. He can heal our hurts and the hurts that we have inflicted upon others.
As I take out the broken and cracked clay hand that sits in the third drawer on the nightstand beside my bed, I can look up to see what it has become all these years later as I gaze on the hands that now hang on the wall. Hands that form a tree of beautiful color and represent love, legacy, joy and worth. What was the broken pieces of my life, of my son’s life that we may have seen as insignificant leftovers to be swept away as invaluable, have become treasures that bring such hope. None of our hurt was wasted. Not one moment was left unseen by God.
The hands that now hang on the wall in our home are a gift from our son. Oh my God, if you only knew the dreams of my heart fulfilled in these hands! All these years later I realize that none of us can truly be blessed and used by God until we first are broken and poured out. All we need to do is be willing to let God pick up all the leftovers of our brokenness and allow him to put the pieces together to form one beautiful life that glorifies Him.
Brokenness seems bad and it hurts so much that we think it will break us and we will never be whole again. I can tell you that your life is not wasted and it’s not over. Everything matters and our brokenness, when put in God’s hands, becomes the masterpiece we were always meant to be. Healed, whole and wholly loved by God.
