Some friends and I were talking about hurts and struggles and hard things a few weeks ago and one pointed out that in the midst of it all I still have noticeable joy. She got me thinking and praying about how my joy comes from my hope in God. So maybe you’re in the midst of hurts and struggles and hard things too. I hope this finds and encourages you. 

We live in a broken world full of broken people. And broken people tend to break other people. That might look like a broken heart, a broken promise, broken trust, or broken dreams. Just to name a few. 

But unlike how a broken bone is visible to others and invites them in to your suffering, this kind of broken is often only seen and felt by the broken one. It’s consuming. And crushing. And suffocating. And heart-wrenching. Again, just to name a few.

But I’m here to tell you that God sees.

Believe me when I say I stand on the ledge of brokenness, close my eyes, stretch out my arms, take a deep breath, and hope to fall sometimes daily. And if you can’t believe that, I point you back to the fact that brokenness isn’t something people walk around with on display with a bright colored cast wrapped around it. It’s rarely seen. 

But God sees. 

And in Him, our broken doesn’t have to mean hopeless. That doesn’t mean we’ll never be broken. It means we have hope in our brokenness. 

He’s the hope that climbs up and meets us on that ledge. He’s the hope that takes our closed eyes and says look at me, I see you. He’s the hope that takes our outstretched arms and wraps his love around us. He’s the hope that takes our every breath and breathes life back into us. He’s the hope that is there to catch us every time we feel like falling.

And if nothing can ever take our God from us, then our broken can never take our hope. 

And that gives me joy.