The Broken are Beautiful

I have broken several bones in my life. I broke my wrist in 4th grade walking.. yes.. that's right. walking. I tripped over my feet, fell, and broke my wrist. You are probably wondering why on earth I would admit to that?? I also broke my right foot in a golf cart accident on my 19th birthday. Then I broke my left ankle playing kickball with some youth. Then the following summer, I broke my right foot again falling down the stairs. I am a very clumsy girl. And it's sort of embarrassing.
What I have learned by all these accidents and broken bones, is that it hurts. When you break a bone it is really quite painful. Even after it heals, sometimes that bone aches.
I think our lives are alot like that. We make choices that leave us broken. Sometimes life just leaves us broken, circumstances leave us broken. And it hurts. We are left with a lot of hurt. And when we are sitting in the middle of that hurt, we can't see anything good that could ever come out of that situation. But I think that when God looks at us in our broken state, He sees something beautiful. When we are strong, we don't realize our need for Him. When things in life are going great, we think we can make it on our own. But when we are broken and weak, we are desperate for Him. I can think of many times in my life when I really thought my life was over, that nothing good would ever happen to me again (sounds dramatic right??). Guess what? I was wrong. God had plans for me all along. He still does. He still has plans for me. And in my brokenness, in my weakness,He orchestrates those plans because my self isn't getting in the way anymore.
Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise."
He loves a broken spirit because it has a desperate need for him.
He comes to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, to release prisoners from the darkness, to give comfort to those who mourn, to make beauty out of the ashes of our lives...(Isaiah 61)
God can turn the brokenness of our lives into something extraordinarily beautiful if we just let him.