In 1985, my family lived through what we call “the year from hell.” I was 25 years old. Let me tell you what was supposed to happen that year. My parents were supposed to welcome their eleventh grandchild into the world, build their dream retirement home, and celebrate their last child (me!) marrying his forever love.
Here’s what happened instead. In April, my mom learned she had cancer and could expect to be gone by the end of the year. Just as we stomached that news, my dad passed away from a heart attack.
My mom was broken. I took a leave of absence to care for her, and there was one day that will forever be marked in my mind as the beginning of the end. It started with her no longer being able to feed herself, and it ended with a family heirloom vase being shattered into many pieces.
Mom was a stoic person, so it was clear her cry that day came from somewhere deeper. Her sorrow was not from a shattered vase; it was from a shattered heart.
Have you been there before? In a place where your heart feels irreparable? Where it feels your dreams have been shattered past the point of no return?
Most of us have, but thank God, He is in the business of restoring broken things! Nothing is too shattered for Him.
We’ll get back to Mom in a minute, but there’s someone else whose life is proof of God’s restorative nature. His name is Job, and he too lost everything in a short period. But because he handled his broken heart God’s way, Job 42:10 tells us, “the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.”
Friends, despite what has caused our broken hearts, God promises restoration. But we have a part to play! Like Job, we must shift our focus from why we’re broken to how we can be restored.
Here’s how: we must resist iniquities—areas of our lives that consistently cause trouble. We have to release ourselves from inner vows—commitments to wrong things we’ve made based on past experiences. We’ve also got to rely fully on the intercession of the Holy Spirit, who helps us walk toward God’s will.
When we do these things, we can speak Romans 8:28 with confidence—“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”!
Mom ended up passing ten days before my wedding, but she gave me the greatest wedding gift she could have ever given me—the confidence that I’ll see her again one day. In her broken place, she found Jesus, and He kept His promise. Her shattered heart was made whole the moment she crossed over into eternity. What’s more—the love of her life was there to welcome her. And that retirement home? Well, I’d say it’s better than her wildest dreams.
