There is so much brokenness in the world. Broken homes, broken lives and broken
hearts. I'm becoming more and more aware
of this as I travel around the world.
Brokenness is real. It's so evident in other countries but it’s also here at
home as well.
It just feels more broken outside the boundaries of my
familiarity.
I recently journeyed, for the first time, to Africa with
a team of people from our church to help at the CURE Hospital in Zambia. Brokenness was all around us. Handicapped children, hurting mothers,
extreme poverty and desperate fathers.
CURE hospital is a beacon of hope and light in this broken place.
It is hard to see the desperation, desolation and dire
circumstances of so many people. Hard to know the place I come from, the
luxuries I enjoy, the hospital care I can receive and see the lack here. Hard to listen to stories of mothers carrying
their crippled child on their back for miles to reach a bus and of the long
journey on the bus to finally reach the hospital. Hard to see a baby with a head the size of its
body, the horrible effects of no prenatal care for the mother. Hard to watch crippled children struggling to
walk on the sides of their feet. Hard to
see the fear and hurt in a mother's eyes.
Brokenness is everywhere in this place and yet brokenness
is where I live as well. Where I come
from brokenness looks different but its brokenness just the same. It's hard to see families torn apart by
divorce and children devastated by the fracture. Hard to see entitlement
residing in a heart and hard to witness adult children refusing to care for
their aging parents. Hard to see a lack of gratitude for all we enjoy. Hard to hear a friend's story of sexual
abuse.
It's evident we live on a broken planet.
But in the midst of the brokenness, I see hope. I see beauty. I see joy.
I see God's healing hand and the love of Jesus in the
hearts of His people. I hear stories of
light overcoming the darkness and beauty breaking through the brokenness. I see God at work bringing severed families
back together. Healing children who have
been devastated by a disability. I see
hope in a parent's eyes. I see God's
redeeming love in the heart of someone who forgives an enemy. I see a children’s hospital (CURE) with a
passion to heal the broken, body and soul.
I see a God who understands brokenness because He became
that for us!
But
he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. Isaiah 53.5
He was broken so we could be healed.
Yes we live on a broken planet but we
have a God who is in the business of turning brokenness into beauty and
that is worth celebrating!
