MORNING GLORY 35
If you look in my car’s trunk you’ll see intricately rigged bungee cords tightly roped around the sides to hold it closed. Back panel taken off, the inside of the hatch looks like a crash-test car ready for a drive. (But really, the inside of a car is pretty cool if you haven’t seen it before!) It all started early on a Saturday morning, forth of July weekend. Clayton and I were up early and eager to head to the lake from Birmingham to meet up with family. Bags loaded and ready to pull out of the neighborhood, my car Lucy girl lit up a dashboard notification that the trunk was open. We pulled over two doors down from the house thinking it would be a simple trunk re-closing. But no, sigh. Several aggravated button pushes and an A for effort try to slam the hatch shut later — we realized something more serious was up. Back at the driveway and two hours later, the latch was clearly broken. Since it was a holiday weekend, no mechanics were available to take on a last minute repair. We were able to borrow my sister Megan’s car and still make it to the lake to enjoy our weekend. Luckily, Clayton and my dad bungeed the trunk closed extra tightly so we could make the drive back to our little corner of Tennessee before the work week.
From the outside as we rolled up I-65, no one would have known the inside of our car’s trunk was broken. Everything looked completely normal from the outside. But inside told the real story — back panel removed, a worn out latch needing replaced. Bungee cords were the only things keeping the hatch shut and our bags from tumbling out. Can’t we all relate on some level? From the outside usually we look all cool, completely normal, no problems here thank you very much. But the world can’t see the bungee cords holding us together inside as we cross our fingers hoping our baggage doesn't come tumbling out. But you know what? In the name of Jesus, we are free to let those bungees go. We don’t have let it hold us back or try our hardest to hold it all inside because He holds it all together.
“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” -Colossians 1:17 NIV
The Lord holds all our pieces, making each one beautiful. And we can look to Jesus for our picture of perfect brokenness for Divine purpose — He was crushed for our sin so our brokenness may be transformed and made whole in Him.
Even though we left Lucy behind and took another car for the weekend, that doesn’t mean the same happens with us! Brokenness and all, God still chooses and uses us. Actually, He works through our brokenness because that’s where the light shines extra brightly. Thick skin makes light harder to travel through. Think about a windshield. We don’t put curtains over windshields because they aren’t transparent. We’d crash if they tried serving the purpose windows do. In the same way, God takes our brokenness and makes us windows for His glory and grace to shine. There is power and healing in transparency. Think about the feeling of open car windows rolling down the road on a warm, sunny afternoon. Now what if we were those windows? That’s what I want to be, bungee cords and all. May it be so.