A few evenings back, Nora (D’Rae’s mother-in-law) was over to the house. She and I and Tom were sitting in the kitchen talking and catching up. Jake was in the back yard weed-eating and the other two boys were off in their rooms. All of a sudden, we heard a sound. I can only describe it as a loud “plink.” It didn’t register in my mom-brain, as say, a fake violent moan-scream of “my brother is messing with me and I want to get him in trouble” or a real “I just sliced myself open” scream. But Tom jumped to his feet and ran for the door yelling, “Stop! Stop!”
Uh-oh!! The plink finally registered. The weed-eater must have thrown a rock at the glass door. Walking around the corner, I saw I was right. Literally in front of our eyes, the glass was cracking, fracturing, breaking. The glass did not break and fall to the ground, but stayed in the door in thousands of broken pieces. Through the breaking glass, we could see Jake standing, with weed-eater in hand, looking chagrinned. We told him it’s OK, accidents happen. But wow! It’s always something…!
I started thinking of the glass. Broken. Shattered into pieces. I knew I wanted to write about it, but which direction should I take? Broken people? Broken dreams? Broken marriages? Broken families? Well, you get the picture!
Or, could there be a good broken?
Casting Crowns sings a song with a line that says, “Break our hearts for what breaks yours.” I love that line! But wow! It’s hard! Sometimes our hearts are hardened and our minds are numb to all that goes on around us. We are desensitized to people and their problems. How do we get there? How do we put others before us? How do we stay compassionate?
Like the glass door being broken by a little stone from Jake’s weed-eater, our living Stone has everything to do with it! Jesus the Rock of Ages. The precious Cornerstone.
Luke 20:18 gives us a great image! It gives us something to really ponder. Referring to the Stone which the builders rejected (himself), Jesus says, “Everyone who falls on that Stone will be broken to pieces, anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
Read it again and take it in.
I want to fall on the Rock and be broken. The book “Desire of Ages” page 599 says, “To fall upon the Rock and be broken is to give up our self-righteousness and go to Christ with the humility of a child, repentant of our transgressions, and believing in his forgiving love.”
Falling on the Rock and being broken is the only way I will decrease, and He will increase. (John 3:30) It’s the only way we can love others and have a heart of compassion.
In the end, being broken into pieces on Him is the only way we can be whole. Being ruined as Isaiah cried, is the only way we can be salvaged. In the end, being broken is way better than being crushed!