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.
It was opening night of archery season and I was waiting above a feeding area where a main trail came out about 5 yards from my tree stand. All evening I had a small 5 point buck in and out of the trail. The last time I saw him he went in behind me into the heavy brush. 10 minutes later I heard what I thought was the 5 point again. I sat unprepared waiting to let him pass again. When the nose of the buck came out from under my stand I noticed antler tips far to the left and right of the buck’s nose. A buck of my dreams was 5 yards from me and I was sitting with my bow hanging above me. I watched unable to move as the buck walked out of my dreams.
There is something very special and even spectacular about an extraordinarily wide whitetail buck's rack. Most hunters dream of a 20” + set of antlers… They are few and far between. One of the widest ever is a buck taken by John Fila in 2006 in Independence, WI. It was opening day of the ’06 season and John and family had gathered to hunt. Right away the first morning John had a buck come by him, across a field. As it hit the woods John was able to get 4 shots off with his 12 gauge slug gun. He suddenly went from excited to discouraged as he didn’t notice any change in the stride of the buck. When he got to where the buck was when he shot, there was plenty of blood to bring back the excitement.
John tracked the buck, still not knowing the real size of the of the rack. Soon after starting the tracking job the buck was jumped and it ran towards another hunter in the party. Before he could get a shot the buck jumped off a cliff and landed 20 ft below on the blacktop road. When the party gathered around the buck everyone was amazed at the size of the antlers. The spread of the antlers was far over 30” and the score was over 206”. It may have scored higher but unfortunately a large part of the left beam was broken off. Amazingly a local hunter was looking for shed antlers the following spring and miraculously found a piece of an antler beam… 3.5 miles away from the harvest. He had heard of John’s trophy and thought that maybe this piece might be the missing end of the beam. Believe it or not… a perfect fit.
Because of new Boone and Crockett rules, the piece could be replaced and officially scored. This beautiful buck was now complete… what was broken is now healed.
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 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.
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