Broken At Christmas

Christmas. For some, this one is the first without their loved one. For others, sickness has invaded their body, or devastation has impacted a family. Sometimes we’re broken at Christmas.

Decades ago I was in my kitchen trying to open the back of a picture frame with a knife. This doesn’t sound like a good idea now. But at the time, I persisted and the end result was a trip to the emergency room with a deep slice between my thumb and index finger. The doctor stitched me right up and I was home within a few hours, wishing I had been more patient with that frame. I wished I had taken the right steps and sought the right tool in which to pry it open.
Stitches serve an important purpose. They hold “hurts” together until the hurt is healed. Time is required for the healing to take place.
Psalm 147:3 tells us, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

The word heal in Psalm 147:3 is the Hebrew word Rapha and means to repair and thoroughly make whole; to mend by stitching. The word broken in the Hebrew is shabarand means to break into pieces. Broken-hearted in this context means crushed or destroyed or torn.

Do you feel shattered emotionally? Are you physically exhausted from the pain of your fragmented pieces?
God heals our hurts by stitching us back together. Unlike the physical stitches I received by the doctor, we can’t see what God is doing on the inside. We can’t know the healing that is happening within our heart and soul. But the Great Physician is sewing us back together piece by piece and in His perfect timing.
The Hebrew for bind up is chabash and means to wrap up our wounds or hurts. Can you picture God wrapping a bandage around your pain?

Whether a bleeding finger or a bleeding heart, they both require time to heal. But God is willing to stitch up the heart that is torn.

Do you need to be “stitched up” this Christmas? Are you broken or alone? Unwrap God’s promise: He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.