by Desiree Bustamante

Only God can take our shattered hopes and make beauty out of loss.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

  “My days are over.
    My hopes have disappeared.
    My heart’s desires are broken.”
Job 17:11 New Living Translation

Have you ever had glass drop from a height? These two items of glass fell from a cupboard in my kitchen. When glass falls from a few feet, it seldom breaks in clean pieces. While this picture shows the larger fragments, many tiny shards fell among the items on my counter. I had to carefully clean off everything to remove the microscopic slivers. While cleaning, I cut myself on a piece of glass so small I couldn’t see it, but I felt its impact.

Sometimes hearts get broken, too. Dreams are shattered, prayers seem unanswered and hopes end in disappointment.  Your actions changed nothing, or the situation worsened. You are cut to your very soul.

But no matter how shattered you feel, I can assure you that God loves you and hears your prayers. Every one of them. There are times He works in ways no one can ever understand, but He understands brokenness because His Son was broken…for you.

There is a Japanese art form called Kintsugi, which means “golden repair.” It’s a centuries-old art of fixing broken pottery with a special lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Bright seams of gold glint in the cracks of a broken object, making it a unique thing of beauty. Repairing something this way emphasizes its fractures and the brokenness instead of hiding them, often making the repaired piece even more beautiful than the original.

This is what God does for us. He takes our broken pieces and reconstructs them into a beautifully restored and useful vessel, resealing the fractured fragments with the blood of Christ. Our hearts, souls and minds are renewed and transformed if we trust Jesus with every crack, every jagged edge, and every profound wound. He always comforts you, and will shape you into a vessel more valuable to Him. When you are suffering from a shattered heart remember these words:

“And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Romans 5:5 New Living Translation

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado