#WorshipWednesday: “The Broken Beautiful”

~ Written by Ginger DenHerder

In the New Testament we see many people bringing all kinds of sickness and suffering to Jesus to be healed and restored. Jesus even redeemed people from death. Jesus transforms the broken of this world into beauty. He can perform this miracle for all of us who confess our brokenness and bring it to him to redeem and restore. 

Psalm 147 v. 3 says, 

[The LORD] heals the broken hearted, 

and binds up their wounds.

One way to bring redemption to our brokenness is to give thanks. Ann Voskamp wrote, “That which I refuse to thank Christ for, I refuse to believe Christ can redeem.” Ponder her words for a minute. Is there some heartache you refuse to believe Christ can redeem? It goes against our narrative to be thankful for hard things; pain, sickness, suffering, loss. Christ draws near to us in the difficulties of life. Thankfulness can be our response to any circumstance because Christ meets us in our deepest need. 

Christ was broken on our behalf at the cross. He took the sin of us all and defeated death. The cross was a terrible punishment invented by the Romans. When we step back and realize the ugly brutality of the cross, we are stunned to find that we have thought it to be beautiful. We decorate our churches and houses and even wear jewelry with crosses as a symbol of our faith. Christ has redeemed the image of the cross into a thing of beauty. We are thankful for His death. His death was the event that led to His resurrection and our salvation. 

Ellie Holcomb celebrates our brokenness in her song “The Broken Beautiful.” Christ pours His love into our broken places and makes us beautiful. Let us give thanks in all our broken/beautiful.