Broken

Today has been one of those days.  Things kept breaking.  First, Lily broke a DVD trying to get it out of the case.  Then, the cat broke Rory's snow globe by knocking it off of the piano.  Both of these things upset Rory quite a bit.  With the DVD, I was able to tell him we could probably get another one sometime.  The snow globe, not so much.  It was from Niagara Falls, and he was right, we are probably not going back there soon.   It was hard to see his sad little face and not be able to make it better.  I was able to break the rest of the glass off so that it is now a little boat statue, but the magic is gone.  This afternoon, we made salt water taffy.  The instructions say to cut it in pieces, and wrap each piece separately.  When we got through, I understood why.  I cut it up, not paying a whole lot of attention to where the pieces landed as I cut.  When I started wrapping, I realized that some of the pieces had decided to stick themselves back together.  Some of them, I even had to cut apart again.

Looking at Rory's face this morning got me to thinking.  Have you ever been broken?  I mean spiritually.  In your soul.  Whenever I've felt this, it has been the result of something I have done.  God periodically shows me things in my life and my character that need to be broken out.  Sometimes I didn't even know that what I was doing was wrong when I did it.  Sometimes it's something that I do over and over and never notice.  Sometimes I know right away that I've sinned, and can't take it back.  At these times, I feel like Rory's face looked.  Broken-hearted.  Something precious is gone.  It can never be the same again.  In Psalm 34:18 King David writes:   "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."  A broken heart is necessary at times.  It will happen to all of us at some time.  Probably more than once.  The important thing is what we do about it.  Taffy has to be broken to be edible.  First it has to be pulled and pulled to the breaking point over and over.  Then, when it is finally put in a long rope, it has to be cut apart.  No one can eat taffy as it is when it comes out of the pot.  It is a sticky mess.  Even after it has been pulled, there is no way to manage the huge chewy lump.  Then, after it is cut, it has to be wrapped, or it goes right back to the chewy lump stage.  When we are broken, it is because God is trying to make something better of us.  We cannot go back to what we were before.  We also can't stay as something that was once beautiful and is now junk.  The problem is, that is easier said than done.  The key is for our broken heart to result in a contrite spirit.  Then, we can be saved.  We can be wrapped in Jesus, so that we do not go back to our old ways and repeat our mistakes and sins again and again.  We can let Jesus break out the rest of the junk and re-purpose us into something that is less magical, but still beautiful, and more real.  We can become a new person, and start again.  "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 7:17).