"Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land." Isaiah 30:26 (MSG)
I've seen an unbelievable amount of people lately whose cell phone screens were cracked all to pieces. I'll pass by them and they are reading or responding to text messages, scrolling through Facebook, or sending an email, without even skipping a beat. It's as if they don't even realize that there is a shattered screen right beneath their fingertips!
It astounded me that their broken screens didn't seem to slow them down or inhibit them from their tasks one bit. Their phones continued to function, so what's an obliterated screen to them? It was "life as usual" in this day in time where cell phones seem to be added appendages to our fingertips.
It made me stop and think of all of the people that I come in contact with everyday that are going about their everyday lives and are viewing the world around them through a broken screen. Everything they see is through the eyes of hurt, despair, abandonment, or unforgiveness. Their brokenness probably didn't come as a result of a physical drop on the ground, but rather from a heart that has been hurt. Their hurt could have derived from years of childhood neglect by a parent, physical or emotional abuse from a spouse, loss of a loved one, or an emotional trauma like a miscarriage, divorce, or unexpected tragedy.
I'm reminded of someone in the Bible who was viewing life through a broken screen. In the only account we have of her, we find her drawing water from Jacob's well in a little town called Sychar in Samaria. While out tending to her daily duties, she has a divine meeting with none other than Jesus Christ Himself.
While at her unexpected appointment with the Son of God, we are made aware of the hurt in her life in two different ways. If you're not careful, you'll breeze through and miss the first area of probable pain. When Jesus asks this woman for a drink of water, she quickly points out to him the well known fact that her people (Samaritans) aren't accepted by His people (Jews). In modern speak, she's lived a life of discrimination because of the family she happened to be born into.
I have a feeling that many who will read this have never truly experienced discrimination because of their nationality or skin color. Unfortunately, it's more likely that we have been on the other side of discrimination. Perhaps it's been our hurtful words, cruel stares, or simple unaffiliation with a person or group of people of another race that has caused hurt, pain, and brokenness.
We are made aware of a second area of hurt and brokenness in this woman's life as Jesus enlightens us to personal information about her. Although the woman tries to conceal the specifics of her current marital status, Jesus doesn't only reveal the fact that the man with whom she is intimately involved with right now is not her husband, but also that she has had a grand total of five husbands in her life on this earth. Now, we aren't privy to any details about the circumstances that surround her failed marriages, but we can surmise that there was undoubtedly some hurt involved. Whether the multiple failed marriages were the results of divorces or deaths, the sheer amount of marriages would have produced natural hurt, as well as ridicule in her day and time.
Aren't we all broken in some way or another? Your brokenness probably looks very different than the brokenness and hurt felt by the woman at the well, but it is highly unfathomable that any of us will make it through this life emotionally unscathed.
However, Jesus calls out to us and offers us all the same remedy for our brokenness as He offered the hurting woman at the Samaritan well. He offers us a drink from His well that provides eternal healing. The water we receive from Jesus will satisfy a thirst that we can't satisfy anywhere else. It provides a healing salve that can't be purchased, but only humbly received.
I've seen an unbelievable amount of people lately whose cell phone screens were cracked all to pieces. I'll pass by them and they are reading or responding to text messages, scrolling through Facebook, or sending an email, without even skipping a beat. It's as if they don't even realize that there is a shattered screen right beneath their fingertips!
It astounded me that their broken screens didn't seem to slow them down or inhibit them from their tasks one bit. Their phones continued to function, so what's an obliterated screen to them? It was "life as usual" in this day in time where cell phones seem to be added appendages to our fingertips.
It made me stop and think of all of the people that I come in contact with everyday that are going about their everyday lives and are viewing the world around them through a broken screen. Everything they see is through the eyes of hurt, despair, abandonment, or unforgiveness. Their brokenness probably didn't come as a result of a physical drop on the ground, but rather from a heart that has been hurt. Their hurt could have derived from years of childhood neglect by a parent, physical or emotional abuse from a spouse, loss of a loved one, or an emotional trauma like a miscarriage, divorce, or unexpected tragedy.
I'm reminded of someone in the Bible who was viewing life through a broken screen. In the only account we have of her, we find her drawing water from Jacob's well in a little town called Sychar in Samaria. While out tending to her daily duties, she has a divine meeting with none other than Jesus Christ Himself.
While at her unexpected appointment with the Son of God, we are made aware of the hurt in her life in two different ways. If you're not careful, you'll breeze through and miss the first area of probable pain. When Jesus asks this woman for a drink of water, she quickly points out to him the well known fact that her people (Samaritans) aren't accepted by His people (Jews). In modern speak, she's lived a life of discrimination because of the family she happened to be born into.
I have a feeling that many who will read this have never truly experienced discrimination because of their nationality or skin color. Unfortunately, it's more likely that we have been on the other side of discrimination. Perhaps it's been our hurtful words, cruel stares, or simple unaffiliation with a person or group of people of another race that has caused hurt, pain, and brokenness.
We are made aware of a second area of hurt and brokenness in this woman's life as Jesus enlightens us to personal information about her. Although the woman tries to conceal the specifics of her current marital status, Jesus doesn't only reveal the fact that the man with whom she is intimately involved with right now is not her husband, but also that she has had a grand total of five husbands in her life on this earth. Now, we aren't privy to any details about the circumstances that surround her failed marriages, but we can surmise that there was undoubtedly some hurt involved. Whether the multiple failed marriages were the results of divorces or deaths, the sheer amount of marriages would have produced natural hurt, as well as ridicule in her day and time.
Aren't we all broken in some way or another? Your brokenness probably looks very different than the brokenness and hurt felt by the woman at the well, but it is highly unfathomable that any of us will make it through this life emotionally unscathed.
However, Jesus calls out to us and offers us all the same remedy for our brokenness as He offered the hurting woman at the Samaritan well. He offers us a drink from His well that provides eternal healing. The water we receive from Jesus will satisfy a thirst that we can't satisfy anywhere else. It provides a healing salve that can't be purchased, but only humbly received.
"Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14
Then, the beautiful and unimaginable healing for our brokenness comes on that glorious day when our residence is no longer on this broken and hurting earth. As we make way to our eternal home in the presence of our comforting and merciful God, we'll not only be able to see through our brokenness, but we'll finally be able to see past it. What we once witnessed through broken screens, will then be seen clearly from the Glory that shines around us.
If you consider yourself to be broken today, let the One who was broken for your transgressions provide you some hope and healing.
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