Sitting just to the right of me is a handy little gadget called a paper shredder which is good for keeping confidential information private. It beats cutting all those papers up with scissors which is far more time consuming and the newer machines cut the strips small so they don’t take up much room. I remember once watching an 80’s tv show where the good guy gets the shredded strips and puts all the incriminating documents back together using tape, and I imagined it would have taken lots of hours. Looking at the small pile in my shred pail, I can’t imagine anything but it taking weeks to put those together.
There have been times in my life that I was so shattered/ shredded that I thought it was impossible to ever be fixed- kind of like Humpty Dumpty. You look at your life and all you see are the shreds of it sticking out here or there and wonder how it is possible life could be so bad. You aren’t able to put it back together- either your strength has been depleted or you don’t know how to do it, and you begin to think ‘this is impossible’.
However, what might be impossible for us is not impossible for God (Lk. 1:37 ). He is all powerful (Rev. 19:6), and I have ‘seen’ Him put my broken life back together time after time- never quite sure how He’s doing it and sometimes even unaware He is working until it is over. “He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.” (Ps. 147:3 NKJV) None of us are too broken to fix! Woohoo! That’s a good thing or I’d still be shattered on the ground.
Some people might laugh in our distress. Others might think we will never survive. Sometimes it is us who think we won’t survive, or can’t ever be put back together. Maybe we think it’s just too much effort and no one would want to take it on, but God does. He doesn’t leave or forsake us (Heb. 3:5) just because we are a mess. Yep, that’s right- when we wake up in the morning with severe bed head, stinky breath and blotchy skin, genuinely needing a shower, He’s still there with us, loving us. He is near (Ps. 34:18) through all our troubles (even when we don’t ‘feel’ Him) and is there to lovingly pick up the shreds of our lives after and put them back together, better than before.
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place. The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? The LORD taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. Ps. 118:5-8
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. Ps. 107:19,20 NKJV
The Lord has all the time- and patience- in the world available to put all our pieces back together, and He won’t mess anything up. As He takes the messy, shredded pieces of our lives and puts us back together, we become beautiful vessels once again. So we need not fear for our Lord hears us and we can put our trust in Him for He is our Deliverer and our Healer.
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust…
Ps. 18:2
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Is. 53:4,5
The Lord will heal us in our broken state!