Broken
Has your child ever brought you a broken toy to be fixed? In our house this happened many times as our children were growing up. The children would always tell me that Dad can fix this. The truth is that he usually could fix/mend the item in some way. The children were assured of this for they had seen the transformation of the broken battered toy restored to its former self. They had faith that he could do what they had asked of him. They had faith in their Earthly Father.
GI Joe and Barbie were always prime targets for brokenness in our house. This was back in the days when Barbies only had so many moving parts. Like all little girls they liked to play pretend wedding with their Barbie’s. But they did not have a Ken. So they would borrow/take their brother’s GI Joe. Now he did not take kindly to this, so he would remove heads, arms or legs. You all know that there cannot be a proper wedding with a head missing, so crying they would go. “Dad, can you fix this?” This was an easy fix so of course he did, and the girls left smiling and the wedding continued with a proper groom.
His greatest challenge came when one of the granddaughters asked him to put a broken doll back together. All of the grandchildren had also learned that their Pop could make ALMOST anything new again. Except the Madame Alexander doll. She arrived at our house with a crushed – no, shattered face and broken limbs. Since she was china there were big pieces and little pieces and missing pieces. I would have said no way- sorry-can’t be done- throw it away. Nope, not their POP! He worked forever just like a plastic surgeon to restore that face. Super Glue to the rescue. It was a very slow procedure and took a long time for the reconstruction. As you can see in the picture she never did look the same. But, yet this Pop did his best to put the pieces of that broken doll together.
Broken! What is broken in your life? What do you need to have put back together? Is it your heart that is broken over a relationship….marriage….a prodigal child….or a friendship? I have found that I can carry around many broken things in my life. I try to fix them on my own. Super Glue for a broken relationship is just not available. There are broken things in our life we just can’t fix. There eventually comes a time when we come to realize that only our Heavenly Father holds the key to mending our brokenness. Pride often blocks our dealing with painful problems. We need to admit our wrongdoing and failure in order to find a real resolution. Humble yourself before God and He will provide the comfort you seek.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4).
Nothing works like going directly to your Heavenly Father for your brokenness. He is better than any Super Glue. Just like our Earthly Father tries to repair our broken toys, only our Heavenly Father can fix what is broken in us.
Love the doll mending story and how your Stan was and is such a loving man. As an earthly father he modeled the patience and love it takes to mend hearts and your children will always have that as a reminder to them.
ReplyDeleteIve been challenged to look at my "broken" bits and take them to the Lord for mending. Thanks Sally, for your lovely post!
Sally, you have me laughing and crying at the same time :_). I have experienced the Lord's "repair work", and can only say, "to God be the glory". Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new" (Rev 21:5).
ReplyDeletePatty Mattes wanted to post this..... I loved Sally's article and tried to post a comment. Then I had to select a profile. Needless to say I don't know how to do that. I could say" if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all" but I'm not. Anyway, Sally, if you see this, thanks for the article. I could really relate to the repair work. A friend told me that God takes the broken pieces and makes a quilt out of them. I'm glad God's "glue" is perfect : )
ReplyDeleteWhat is it about boys and ripping the heads off their sister's Barbies?! .....must be a universal thing. I love that God's better than super glue and when we get our "heads ripped off", God, our father, is there to fix us.
ReplyDeletesheila