Day 24: Jesus is a Restorer of All That Seems Irreparably Broken

So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel. MATTHEW 15:31, EMPHASIS MINE

THE DAY AFTER MISSY’S baptism, I experienced another better-than-I-could’ve-dreamt moment when Missy and I approached the Western Wall and placed a slip of paper on which I’d written a prayer into a crack. You probably know the magnitude of the Western Wall (often called the “Wailing Wall”); it is located in the Old City of Jerusalem and was originally part of the temple structure erected by Herod the Great, and since the destruction of the temple in AD 70, it’s the only segment of that sacred structure left where Jews can gather to pray. Therefore, it’s customary for them to come to the wall to grieve the downfall of the temple and the Holy City and to pray for their restoration. The tearful laments of devotees are usually uttered with their foreheads pressed against those giant, Herodian stones and often accompanied by the act of placing small prayer scrolls in the cracks and crevices of the wall to commemorate their petitions.14

The first time I had the sober privilege of placing a small slip of paper inscribed with a prayer into the Western Wall was in 1998 on a trip with Kay Arthur, but I can’t remember my request. The second time I gently poked a plea in between those ancient stones was in late September of 2000 on the day before Yom Kippur—the highest holy day in the Jewish calendar—and I vividly remember that request. I was approaching forty and still single, but I felt like God had healed much of the shame and relational toxicity that had reigned in my heart since childhood. So I decided to be as brave and vulnerable as I could, and I wrote a prayer thanking God for my healing and asking that, if it wasn’t too late, I would love for Him to please give me a family of my own.

There were a thousand praises dancing in my heart in light of His extravagant grace as I approached the Western Wall for a third time on April 1, 2019, while holding my daughter’s hand, nineteen years after asking Him for a family of my own. But there were only two words written on the prayer I let Missy nudge into a tiny fissure: Thank You. Somehow that short phrase said it all.

The older I get—and sixty is right around the corner, y’all!—the more often I find myself pondering how patient our God is when it comes to restoring what’s broken in our world and in our lives. He consistently weaves divine grace into the messy milieu of humanity even though we’re prone to wander and rebuff His reno plans time after time. I had the joy of hanging out with a few women who are residents of a faith-based recovery center recently, and all of them confessed that it wasn’t their first attempt at getting clean. One precious, raspy-voiced, stumbling saint told me it was her sixth time in rehab because she’s found it excruciatingly difficult to break her addition to meth. She said, “Miss Lisa, I hurt every single person who ever loved me so much, they all ended up walking away. Except Jesus. He’s the only one I haven’t run out of second chances with.”

Long after we’d hugged and said goodbye, I kept thinking about what she said: Jesus is the only one I haven’t run out of second chances with. My bad choices had different consequences; I didn’t lose my teeth to meth or my job to alcohol. I’ve never been incarcerated. But I know what it feels like to be trapped by repetitive rebellion, to sabotage my own healing and wonder if I’ll get another chance because I’ve blown so many. And I found myself crying with fresh gratitude over the fact that our Savior’s restorative compassion isn’t reserved for jars of clay with clean fractures that are easily repaired with a squirt or two of superglue. Instead, He lovingly leans down and picks up every single shard of what appears to be irreparably shattered. Then He tenderly puts us back together, piece by piece. Unlike insurance carriers, Jesus doesn’t do total write-offs.

• WHAT BROKEN SITUATIONS, dreams, or relationships has Jesus already restored in your life story?
• HOW COULD GRATITUDE—THANKING Jesus for what He’s already fixed—keep us from losing our faith over the situations, dreams, and relationships He has yet to restore? What are some specific things Jesus has fixed in your life over the years?