Beauty in the Brokenness

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26

The holidays have come and gone, and we are already two weeks into the new year. I love beginnings and I love the hope that the start of a new year brings with it. A blank slate, a fresh start and the time to put another foot forward.

This new year ushered in with it a lot of sickness for my household. The holidays and first week of 2014 had been filled with fevers, runny noses, ear infections, and strep throat - just to name a few of the not so fun symptoms, for both the little ones and myself.  So we have seen a lot of the inside of our home and by the end we're all going a bit stir crazy.

Thankfully, we are all better and things are settling back into the normal routine. To be honest, in the thick of it, it felt like a crummy way to start a new year. It felt discouraging to feel so terrible and to be stuck at home. The middle of the night fever sweats and body aches, combined with the cries of a 3 year old just as sick, felt overwhelming. My body felt broken and at times, my spirit did as well.

It had me thinking a lot about the idea of brokenness. I am recognizing that we are all broken in one form or another, and that we won't be fully whole until we get to the other side. However, there is also beauty in the brokenness and there is hope.

There is a God that is healing us if we allow Him to. He sees past the broken parts to what we can be. He, whose body was broken so that I may have life and freedom, He understands my brokenness and wants to use it. And in my brokenness, He pours out His grace upon me and shows me His love. He paints the sky brilliant shades of color to remind me He is here.

He sees the beauty that can come from the wounds and the hurts, and He promises more. He has promised that He is close to the broken hearted, and aren't we all dealing with a broken heart in some way as we live in this imperfect world?

He has promised to breath life into our broken hearts and to use us where we are at. There is hope and comfort in that knowledge. There is beauty in the brokenness as we allow our broken pieces to draw us closer to Him - the great Healer and Restorer.