“A merry heart does good, like medicine,
But a broken spirit dries the bones.”
Proverbs 17:22
BROKEN PIECES
Why do we keep the broken pieces
the vase that shattered
the frame split in two
a figurine damaged
sequestered in a plastic bag
never to sit once more on a shelf
Why hold on to that which is unusable
the pot burned unrecognizable
the chipped and battered plate
a record player with a broken needle
and a lamp that will not light
What value is a worn out rug
a tattered quilt
and a rusted truck
that no longer runs
What merit is a broken heart
it does not care
many friendships it parts
in its wake leaves destruction
instead of peace or love?
~Marcell Warner Bridges
©16, February 2011
Nine-year-old Marcell stood in an empty classroom staring at the eyeglasses in her hands. Black, ugly, Air Force issue eye glasses, looked like they had wings on the tips of them and could fly away. Thick lenses with bifocals and plastic sheets that stuck on the glass themselves, called “prisms”, all to make her left eye strengthen and straighten.
Just months before she’d had eye surgery so her eye would no longer wander off on its own to the outside of the eye but the doctor accidentally over-corrected and now the eye turns inward to her nose. Seriously, what was more pathetic? At least it looked cooler for her eye to wander to the outside.
Tears streamed down Marcell’s face as taunts echoed through her mind. Sticks and stones do break bones but … words, WORDS … oh how they CAN hurt! Sure, she had the wherewithal to look at the mockers and tell them “four eyes are better than two” and laugh right along with them. But in private, those words hurt.
Marcell kept staring at those glasses and the anger built up until she threw them down as hard as she could. As they tumbled to the ground, they broke. Clean through, right down the middle. Do you know what’s worse than wearing Air Force issue black eyeglasses at the age of 9? Wearing them the next day held together with masking tape on the bridge of your nose. Marcell sure did wish in that moment that those eyeglasses could really fly away.
Marcell’s heart felt just as broken that day. 
Many times in life we make plans only to see them side-lined by unexpected events. We pick up the shattered pieces of china we call life off the floor and put them on a shelf to glue back together later. But we never fix it. More importantly, we never let God fix it.
Jesus is just waiting for us to come to Him with our broken plans, broken dreams, broken hearts and broken lives. He wants us to lay them down at the foot of the cross, and leave them there. God wants to glue back together the broken things in our life. Yes, there will be cracks and scars, but they will be beautiful if we will let Him make them a testimony of His faithfulness and grace in our life.
It is time to throw away the broken glasses, the broken plate, the broken statue that meant so much but now just gathers dust and find who you are in Christ and let Him heal your past and your heart.
Oh Lord, please take our broken pieces and refashion them into who You want us to be. Help us to give all of them to You, and to quit harboring them in the depths of our hearts that we may be free from the bondage of a broken spirit. Father God, please use these broken pieces as a reflection of You. May we use them to minister to others who have gone through similar circumstances. Give us the ability to lay them down at Your feet and leave each burden there so we can be used as vessels for Your glory. May our sorrows be turned to laughter and joy in You.
From My Heart to Yours,
Marcie 🙂
Thank you to www.pixabay.com for the glasses and window pictures.
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