My smoothie blender broke, and in my frustration, I packed it up and put it in the giveaway pile. I don’t have the patience for tinkering around with small appliances—finding the problem is bad enough, but forget locating things like tools and glue. And I definitely don’t have confidence in things I think I’ve fixed. It’s only a matter of time before they fall apart again.
Skipper, however, loves fixing what is broken. I find contraptions around the house that he has glued, nailed, and stapled back together. He is patient and firm in his belief that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Yes, Skipper and I are opposites on this one. 
Neither of these approaches works for spiritual things, however. If a friendship is broken, or something inside me feels broken, it’s easier to just ignore it—or scrap it. Or, like Skipper, cobble it back together. This is the opposite of what God did on the cross. He took what was perfect, His son, and broke Him so that we could be whole again. Our healing was contained in His brokenness. Perfection isn’t useful to God, and neither is the thing that is “fixed.” We are never fixed. He lives in us and uses our brokenness to bring healing to others.
Think about what has broken your heart, or that part of your life you wish was whole and perfect. Maybe that is the very thing God wants to use to bring healing to someone else. God delights in making broken beautiful and bringing new purpose to shattered plans. I might just keep that useless smoothie blender to remind me of the beauty of broken things. A flower vase perhaps?
