The Hurt and the Healer Collide

“You’re not the worthless they made you feel, there is a love they can never steal away; and you don’t have to stay the broken girl. Those damaged goods you see in your reflection love sees them differently, love sees perfection; a beautiful display of healing on the way tonight…

Let your tears touch the ground, lay all your shattered pieces down and be amazed how grace can take the broken girl and put her back together again”  ~ Broken Girl by Matthew West

Last year I wrote a meditation after reflecting on Isaiah 43:1-7. In this passage God speaks about gathering his people back together. In my meditation I wrote about being shattered into a million pieces and how for years I have been wandering around picking up the pieces and trying to put me back together again. I wrote how I had been trying so hard but couldn’t seem to find all the pieces. I wrote about trusting others that God had placed in my life to help me heal. I’ve handed over the broken pieces and some have gently put the pieces back together and with God’s love they have healed. But others have taken the pieces that I entrusted to them and thrown them to the ground shattering them into a million pieces and making it even harder to gather them up.

So when I recently heard the words to this new song by Matthew West, it reminded me of my meditation. So often I have focused on my brokenness and my sinfulness but this song reminds me of God’s love. It reminds me that I am not the worthless person that I have always seen myself as. I am not damaged goods. I am a walking example of God’s amazing love. He can take someone so broken and beaten down like I was and make me whole. But in order to do that I had to let go of the shattered pieces I was holding onto. I had to lay them at the foot of the Cross so that His love that pours out from his side could wash over me and bring healing to my hurting heart. This is where His glory meets our suffering. “The moment when humanity is overcome by majesty, when grace is ushered in for good and all our scars are understood.”  This is when “the hurt and the healer collide.”  ~ The Hurt and the Healer by Mercy Me

Only God’s love can heal all the hurt that is happening in our world. I am part of a group of women at my parish that is taking Christ Renews His Parish (CHRP) to a new parish. During the process of preparing for the weekend, we share with one another how God has touched our lives. It is heart-breaking to hear of all the cruel things that we do to one another, especially to our family members. But in the midst of all our suffering we are united with Christ and “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24) Only God can take a broken girl and put her back together.