Broken Hearts

Not the blog post you might be expecting for Valentine's Day, huh? Broken hearts?

Well, it may not be what you think! My daughter and I were baking heart cookies for her friends and family and it was our last batch to roll out. If you've ever made sugar cookies, you know how difficult that last batch can be, and how easily the dough cracks and breaks as you roll it out. She was so disappointed because her cookies weren't perfect. Me being the person I am took the opportunity to try to teach her something about a broken heart.

For those of you who know me, you know I've had quite a few broken hearts in the past two years. God gives, and God takes away. Though I'm not going to go into the details, something I've learned and taken to heart is that God truly uses everything in life (yes, even the worst things we can imagine possible) for His good to help us transform more and more into the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29, 2 Cor 3:18). Though it may be our worst day, it can be what God uses to refine our faith into something stronger than it was before. Something more beautiful.

So, as my daughter was upset about her broken heart cookies, I got down to her level and looked her square in the eyes and smiled at her. I told her that our hearts have scars from the sad things that happen to us. Like an owie? she asked me. I continued by reminding her of some of the sad things we've been through, but how we learned something from each event. She nodded, and I said that each event and sad thing leaves a scar on our hearts, just like the scars on your cookies. But, I explained, those scars make our hearts stronger and more beautiful than they were before because God heals our broken hearts and helps us through the tough times. Because He loves us, Mommy? she asked. I nodded. "Yes, kiddo, He loves us more than we will ever know."

So, as we are celebrating the great love God has for us this Valentine's Day, I've been thinking about the theme verse for my next project.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

God loves us so much that He takes what we see as the worst things in our lives, and transforms them into a vessel for His power to shine through us. He uses the sad, difficult, tragic, tough things in life and makes us stronger and more beautiful through them.

Broken heart? It's what we all try to avoid, yet it is one of God's greatest ways to show Himself in our lives.

This is true love, that He takes our worst and transforms it into what will make us the best. God showed us the greatest example of that. Surely we all thought Christ's torture and death on the cross was the worst thing imaginable, but God used it to bring salvation to the world for all those who would believe in Jesus.

This is love, best seen through the lens of the broken.