One of the reasons I love "The Tale of Despereaux" so much is because of the many meanings found within its pages. Yes, it is a children's book, but I still find myself learning from it. Even some of the smallest phrases in the story carry huge implications and life lessons for those who take the time to see them.
And so it is from Despereaux that I feel I have truly come to grasp why God sometimes sends hardship and suffering. About midway through the book, it says of Roscuro, "...these things helped him to put his heart together again, but, alas, it mended wrong." As I thought about this statement, I pictured a clay heart shape that has been shattered. Someone has tried to mend it, but many of the pieces are out of order, such that it no longer even looks like a heart. This is exactly what happens when we try to put our own broken hearts back together using false, though perhaps comforting, assumptions, and half truths. It is inevitable that things will get mixed up, perhaps with some pieces being left out all together, and we will not end up with a whole heart. Now, if God's plan for us is that we be made whole and holy,* then the only way for these wrongly mended hearts to be made whole again is, sadly, for them to be broken again. Broken, so that One far wiser can help us mend them properly, with everything in its place and no pieces left out. Grounded in truth, rooted in love, whole and holy.
*"How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love." Eph. 1:3-4 MSG
2 comments:
mm i've found that even the youngest of books can have something profound to teach us if we only listen, like the smallest of chilren *hugs* i wish mending wasn't so painful
Mending is always painful when we attempt to mend our hearts. Holes are created, pieces are misplaced. It can be even more painful when other try to use pieces of their heart to fix ours, or use ours to fix theirs.
Fortunately God is capable of wondrous things. He is the creator of our hearts and thus there is no heart he can not mend. The truly amazing part is what happens when you place our hearts in his hands, not only does he mend our heart, but he also takes the pain away and replaces it with joy, when we are willing to receive his blessings.
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