Finding God In Our Brokenness … Hello weekend readers. I am musing on brokenness for a variety of things! Yes, brokenness is usually the last place we would expect anything that could be good, but there’s more to our brokenness that actually can be wonderful! Listen to this short story…

A lady was strolling along the water’s edge, watching the waves roll in ahead of the storm with the wind whipping up fast. To her surprise, the wind didn’t bother the seagulls; they swooped down and soared up repeatedly each time something falling from their mouths. As if right on cue, they dove down, snatched it back up, soared to a greater height, and dropped it again. One by one, they continued this pattern until they flew away. She asked a couple why they do that and they told her “They are dropping Crabs because they drop them to break them and that is how they get the good stuff to eat.”

OK, who would have thought a seagull to be that intelligent? Well, they are God’s creation so you know how they learned it! This story pecked at my brain as I thought “Can good stuff come from breaking something? Obviously the crabs didn’t like it but the seagulls did and it gave them the food they needed.

We all experience brokenness in our lives. Wrestling with sin is part of that brokenness and sometimes we wonder if we can find any good in our brokenness. Well, we can. First let’s go to Scripture in John 1:45-46 from The Message Bible: “Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.” But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.”

Nazareth was known as a small, unimportant city. It was held in low esteem and was the last place one would expect “anything good” to come from. No wonder Nathanael was uneasy. Most people stayed away from Nazareth in those days. Yet who lived there – Mary and Joseph and our precious Jesus!

Can anything good come from my broken heart or broken dreams? From a friend’s broken health and another’s broken relationship? Is finding the good possible even in this?

Like Nazareth, our brokenness is the last place we would expect to find anything good! So how do we harness this “brokenness” and find the peace we need. Look to God and read God’s Word. Just as the world’s Savior came out of Nazareth, our Savior’s most beautiful work often comes out of brokenness as well. Despite our seemingly broken plans, dreams, and lives, God’s plan is always unfolding and it’s always GOOD—however painful the present may be in our situation.

When I finally quit whining and decide to look to God and dig into the Scriptures, I remember that even when my heart aches or my mind can’t comprehend or my body hurts—and all the heartful stuff I struggle with—there is God right by my side, mending the brokenness I cannot put back together.

So, the next time you think “can anything good come from this?” stop and remember that Jesus proved good can come from Nazareth and good for you. Look at it this way: If the Creator of the seagull gave it wisdom to get the “good stuff” by breaking crabs, surely that same Creator knows how to bring forth good out of our brokenness. O friends, that is our God, that is our Savior, that is all that we need always…AMEN!