FIXING WHAT'S BROKEN
1 Peter 5:10
After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
A big whitetail buck's rack is something that attracts and holds the attention of most every hunter. When a set of antlers is big enough to surpass the standing world record, it attracts more attention than nearly anything on earth.
The biggest typical buck ever harvested is a buck taken by Johnny King in 2006 in Grant County, WI. It was opening day of the '06 season and Johnny and family had gathered to make a few deer drives. On the second drive of the morning, Johnny had a buck come by him. His First shot hit the mark, but the buck kept going. Johnny got off several more shots as he tracked the wounded buck. The last shot was as the buck was running down hill, straight away. Johnny didn't know it at the time, but that last shot hit the bucks left antler, right behind the brow tine.
When the buck finally went down, Johnny and his cousin approached the buck and began congratulating each other on the biggest buck they had ever seen. His cousin sat astride the buck and grasped the antlers to admire the buck. What the two men didn't know, was that the buck was still alive and as he jumped to his feet, the left antler pulled off in the hunter's hand. The buck was quickly dispatched.
The buck's antler astonishingly had a few chips missing, but it slipped back into place well. Prior to 1995, Johnny's buck would have been unscorable. However, because of new rules put in place that year, the pieces could be replaced and officially scored. This beautiful buck is now complete... what was broken is now healed and scorable for the record book.
The Bible has many examples of brokenness and healing. In Genesis 25, we can read how Jacob stole Esau's birthright and that broke their relationship. Esau was so angry with Jacob that he set out to kill him. It seemed as if this relationship was beyond repair.
Move forward 8 chapters to Genesis 33 where God redeems Jacob and Esau's apparently irreparable relationship . Our God is a God of complete restoration. God can take any relationship that seems dead and breath new life back into it. God doesn't look at what could have been... no, He looks at what still could be. He looks through the lens of redemption instead of the lens of regret. He can take what is broken and put it back together.
Jacob began to restore his relationship with Esau by humbling himself. Our restoration starts with humbling ourselves before God and the people we need to reconcile with.
Our relationship with God was severed and broken by sin. Sin had separated us from God. But, God sent Jesus to die on the cross and rise again 3 days later to reconcile our relationship with Him. God took a blood stained cross and turned it into an empty tomb. If He can do that, He can take the pieces of your broken relationship and put them back together.
Is there something broken in your life that seems beyond repair? Ask God to restore it. He's in that restoration line of work.
Is there still a split between you and Jesus Christ that has never been healed. He can restore that too. Ask Him to come to you and heal that brokenness. He already did the work on the cross... He's just waiting for you to ask Him to bind what is broken. All you have to do is ask Him.
Psalm 147:3
"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."
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