Bent and Broken

We got snow on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's the end of October, so there is nothing unusual about that... Except that what we got was a wet, heavy, deep spring snow, at the end of October. All of the trees were still full of leaves, which made a lovely hammock for the blanket of white. The problem of course being that the snow was too heavy a burden for many branches to bear. Eventually, even some of the strongest branches gave up, and the trees in our city look like they are just back from battle.

As I was driving through my neighborhood on this beautiful, sunny day I was surveying the damage.  These trees are not old - maybe 10 years at most. But they have been standing in their place, doing their part to bring shade and beauty to the neighborhood. Just last week I was noticing how beautiful the flaming red maples were - and today they are mere sticks with a few wisps of torn leaves left, and a graveyard of broken branches below them. They have seen battle. They have taken on a burden that was too heavy, and they have paid the price.

This isn't the first time our trees have been broken, nor will it be the last. In time, the fallen branches will be picked up, the snow will fall, the spring will thaw, and the trees will bud again. And they will be different. They will bear the scars of their fallen limbs. Their canopy will form a new shape. And they will still be home to the birds, bring shade from the sun, and turn crimson and gold in the fall. As though nothing has changed.

I am reminded of a quote that I once read by Charles Dickens; "Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape."

We all carry scars. Battle wounds that are many times invisible to others, but seem so very obvious to us. We have been shaped by the different seasons of our lives, and we are growing into the people God intends for us to be. When we are broken, and we see our branches lying on the ground around us, it is easy to feel as though God has forsaken us.

According to Isaiah 64:8, God is the potter and we are the clay.  We are the work of His hand. And in Psalm 147:3, the bible tells us that He (God) heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. With the knowledge that it is God who shapes us, and binds our wounds, perhaps our scars should be a reminder not of our pain, but of the love that God has for us, and the healing He provides.

So as I go through each season of my life; the laughter filled summer days, the golden autumn afternoons, and the broken winter nights, it is good to know that there is a new spring morning awaiting me. And although I have been bent and broken, I can't wait to see what God shapes me into next!