What I’ve learned about kids is that they take an ordinary task and JACK IT UP! Sometimes they shock you at just how bad they do. Anyone let a 7-year-old fold towels? Or they surprise you with their amazing abilities. Who knew my 10-year-old could make brownies from start to finish all by herself? Then there are other moments where you aren’t sure if you should high five their hand or their face.
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Rewind to a summer day last year. Our kids were given the job of gathering sticks out of the back yard so daddy could mow. In true parental bribery fashion, Jeff offered them a nickel for each stick - he had a false illusion of the amount of sticks in the yard and the size of our bank account. I watched the kids scurrying around the yard like that $1 would save their lives. A few minutes later I noticed only one child was collecting sticks. In effort to locate the unaccounted for, I flung open the back door. Much to my surprise, my 7-year-old son was hiding beside the house with a pile of sticks next to him, carefully breaking each stick over his knee. Y’all… we are raising an entrepreneur or a thief… I’ll let you decide! **Disclaimer this is the same child who went the the bathroom 5 times at the ice cream shop because there was a tray of free cookies on the counter that read “One Free Per Trip” … I’m calling him a genius!**
But upon further review I realized this… Landrum knew that a broken stick held more value than a whole one.
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This reminds me of sweet lessons I’ve learned over and over in scripture of lives lived broken but better! A beautiful visual of this concept can be found in the Gospels. Jesus feeds 5000 with only 5 loaves and 2 fish. Anyone with teenage boys knows this was a REAL miracle. Five loaves and 2 fish wouldn’t last 5 minutes in most houses but in the hands of Jesus, it was broken over and over until everyone had eaten AND they had leftovers. A meal prepper’s dream!! What all those people learned that day and what I hope you see is this… In Christ nothing is truly divided, only multiplied. Even in the worst of circumstances, God is still a good God with infinite abilities. Loss of jobs divides income, divorce divides homes, drugs & alcohol divide families BUT placed in the hands of Jesus, GOOD CAN BE MULTIPLIED FROM EVEN THE MOST BROKEN THINGS.
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I think as Christians we oftentimes live in a bubble of assuming our walk with Jesus will insure us an easy life. Then we are surprised when we are faced with the messiness of being a true Christ-follower. It’s easy to get distracted when life gets difficult. It’s easy to blame God for hurt and pain and chaos, that which we bring on ourselves and that which others bring upon us. ‘How could a good God allow this to happen? How will I ever come back from this? How will we get all these bills paid? Will we ever have a family after all these years of loss and struggle? This hurts far more than I think I can handle. I feel like my heart is literally in pieces.’ Just like Landrum knew with the sticks and Jesus knew with the bread... God knows our highest value comes in our brokenness. The brokenness of the bread granted access for a miracle to happen. Your brokenness grants you access to the miraculous power of God!
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"Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner." 1 Peter 4:12-13 MSG
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Prayer: God, I place in your hands all my broken pieces. It truly feels like pieces are all I have left. Let this brokenness not be in vain. Do with these circumstances, what only you can do. Take the hurt of division in my heart and multiply your goodness through it. God, I fully trust you with each and every outcome. Amen.
