How many times can something be broken before it can no longer be touched or seen? A clay flower pot strikes the ground and breaks into different-shaped shards.  In gathering up the pieces, inevitably there are some pieces that cannot be found, either because they are hidden from our sight or too small to see.  And inasmuch as we would attempt to put the flower pot back together again, there would be fissures of empty space between the pieces representing those pieces never found.

I wonder if it’s a misguided endeavor to attempt to put something “back together” that has been broken. It can never really be the same.  Even if the pieces line up at the breaking points with apparent seamlessness, the break is still there.  From all appearances, the brokenness may resemble wholeness in perfection, but the brokenness cannot really be disguised.  It is felt in the loss of that which is broken.

Is healing putting something “back together?” Or could it be that healing is further brokenness?  Allowing the brokenness to be seen by breaking it more….breaking it open.  Exposing it in all its vulnerability.  Picking up the pieces and throwing them down again for them to break into even smaller pieces.  Again and again, until the pieces are a fine powder that is almost indistinguishable from everything in its environs. So fragile and light now that a gust of wind can carry it up and outward, expanding further and further until….

I’m not sure that Wholeness is bringing something back together, like gluing the pieces of a broken dish back together. Could it be that real Wholeness is real brokenness, breaking more and more, but at the same time healing?  Can a story of brokenness be another brokenness  but, though still painful, marks some type of recovery and healing?  And the reason why….  Because it is being shared with another!

tpt 5/7/2015