Healing after Brokenness

Drew darted back and forth, maneuvering the blue and yellow ball at his feet. Sweat beads lined his freckled forehead. I marveled with wonder and pride.

Boys were created to run and to play, and most parents don’t think a thing about it. I know I didn’t before February 15, 2014.

But when your healthy 7-year-old breaks his femur in half, you don’t look at normal boy activities the same anymore.

With legs pounding on the grass, with every quick change in direction, a little bit of my soul rejoiced. My mind flashed back to Drew’s screams every time I tried to help him to the restroom, to get him in the shower, to do exercises if he wanted to walk without a limp.

I’ll never look at my healthy son the same again.

Health doesn’t feel quite as sweet unless you’ve experienced healing after brokenness.

Hard Healing

Have we come to God, helpless in our brokenness, and allowed Him to do the sometimes painful act of healing?

Drew’s first step in healing wrenched this mother’s heard like it had never been wrenched before. In the Emergency Room, the medical staff pulled his leg so his bone would go from two parallel lines to one solid line. His typically timid voice bellowed through tears, “Please stop pulling my leg off!” What he didn’t know was that this pain was the essential first step, preparing his leg for surgery which ultimately ushered his healing.

Sometimes healing hurts. Letting God into those places we’d rather not admit to, or places we can’t even bear to go back to ourselves, can be excruciating.

But what if we don’t?

If We Don’t Allow Healing

In the ambulance with Drew my mind considered what would have become of him had we not had access to medical care. At best, he would have probably had a limp for the rest of his life. He may not have ever fully regained the ability to walk. Life-threatening infection could have set in.

Such is the one who avoids the hard task of healing from brokenness. Never fully healed. Never running putting her feat in the starting blocks for the race designed for her. Limping through life at best. Dying defeated at worst.

Victory of Healing

But one who is healed!! She runs with vigor! She smiles at life! She has a view of health that few others can see! She lives his life in gratitude of the one who healed her completely!

But complete healing doesn’t mean no evidence remains of brokenness. Drew has two 2-inch long scars on his knees that reminds us every day of his prior state of brokenness. But instead of focusing on the scars, I focus on what they remind me of. That healing came.

Only a good God can make beauty from ashes. Let’s embrace the beauty that is ours. The beauty of rejoicing in healing. The beauty of understanding another’s pain. The beauty of endurance that came at great cost.