Broken Parts

So, I told you yesterday about how I was completely dissatisfied listening to the radio, right? Well, I burned a fantastic cd, but then forgot to put it in my car. I couldn't handling listening to one more song on the radio, so I popped in Ingrid Michaelson's 'Be Ok'. The title track includes these lyrics:

'Open me up and you will see
I'm a gallery of broken hearts
I'm beyond repair, let me be
And give me back my broken parts'

I am a gallery of broken parts. I've had my hart bruised, my ego trampled on, my self esteem ripped in half. We all have. We all come with baggage whether we like to admit it or not. There are parts of me that are ugly and broken. I don't want anyone to see these parts. I don't want anyone to open me up and see the gallery of mistakes and disappointments and hurts that have brought me to this place. And, even if those parts have healed, there is still scarring, horrible dark scars.

But, Ingrid, I'm not beyond repair. I know a man who can heal my broken parts so completely and absolutely that there won't be any scarring. I know a man who has opened me up, walked through my gallery of broken parts and saw something beautiful. He saw something worth repairing.

Even as I write this, I weep. I am overwhelmed. I know my broken parts. I know what He saw when He opened me up. I know what He took from me. And, I know what He gave me in return. And, it's not just like He took those broken parts and threw them in some nasty storage closet. No, He took them into Himself, walked up to that cross and died with those broken parts. He did all of that so that I, vile, wretched, broken sinner that I am, could be made whole.

Again, I find myself saying, 'Who am I? Who am I that you could do this for me? What could You have possibly seen in me that would have made all of this worth it? What beauty is there in my broken parts?' But, I know that any beauty anyone may see is His doing. Any good that can be found in this broken flesh is Him. I am beautiful only because He loves me. I am whole because He loves me. I am able to love because He loves me.