How can you resist a sale offering 90% off?
We couldn’t. So, there we were at Hobby Lobby, scanning the aisle that promised unsold Christmas ornaments, wreaths, and ribbons. But what we found were decimations rather than decorations.
There were trees missing trunks and reindeer missing limbs. We saw stars without their points, and holly without berries. A lady in the same aisle we ambled down was heard to mutter: “If it’s not broken, it’s not here!” She wasn’t wrong.
We saw lacquer that was lacking, gold foil that had failed, and untold numbers of things unglued. To prove my lack of exaggeration, I created a grouping from just a few items at arm’s length and snagged a snapshot. So pathetic, it was almost comical.
But I found unexpected meaning in the mishmash when my eye landed upon a church ornament. White and porcelain, the bottom corner of the church was entirely missing—cracked off.
Instantly, I was reminded that in some way, this aisle was a picture of the world. We are all broken, sinful, trashed. In fact, the Bible says, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).
But thank God, He didn’t walk down the aisle of our brokenness, shake His head, and walk away. He sent Jesus to die in our place, pay for our sins, and make it possible to be restored to God. Broken no more.
If you have never come to God and asked Him to forgive you—and make you whole, do it now! And don’t let your personal mess keep you back, as if you are a disaster too great for Him.
Spurgeon says, “Your ruin is your argument for mercy; your poverty is your plea for heavenly alms; and your need is the motive for heavenly goodness. Go as you are and let your miseries plead for you.”
We’re all broken. But we don’t have to stay that way.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. -1 John 1:9
