Broken to Beautiful.

Back in middle school I had a little accordion file folder that I carried around with me. I used it to store all of my folders and papers. It was a lovely little thing that kept me somewhat organized, until the day that it broke. I was pulling on the cord that wraps around the button on the front to keep it closed, and the cord snapped. I can vividly remember choking back tears in writing and literature class every time I glanced down at that broken cord.

You may be thinking, It’s not a big deal. It’s just a folder, get a new one! From an outsider’s perspective, breaking a $5 folder doesn’t seem like a very normal thing to get upset about, but in that moment I felt very justified in my feelings.You see, this wasn’t an isolated event. I ruin things ALL the time. I’ve shattered glass, ripped doors from their hinges and peed directly onto the carpet in my bedroom floor. One of those things I actually did on purpose, but I wont tell you which one.

….(We replaced the carpet, ok people?).

And the list goes on- I’ve broken dishes, hairbrushes, door knobs, and the hearts of at least 4 of my close kin. On my better days, I stick to breaking things like pencils and hard candies between my teeth.I’m basically a klutz on steroids, and breaking my folder that day was just another example to add to the list, leaving me more upset than ever. I felt so embarrassed by my clumsiness that I resolved to use that folder for the rest of the school year, dysfunctional as it was.

I get that this is a somewhat silly illustration, but I do have a point.

One day a few weeks later as I was sitting in class, my friend reached over and grabbed my folder. She fidgeted with it for a few minutes, and plopped it back on my desk. She had somehow found a way to re-knot the cord and tie it to the button on the outside flap of the folder. Genius. Now of course, it wasn’t exactly like it was before, but it was functional and I was thrilled. That day I learned to see broken things differently through the ingenuity of my crafty friend.

Now, whenever I break something, I try to find a way to fix it or make it useful as opposed to simply throwing it away. I now store my hair products in what was once a lock box that I broke the lock off of. My old bulletin board that was looking pretty dingy, is now a place to pin sweet cards. And the green folder? Well its been used for at least 5 different purposes over the last 5 years.

As I look over in the corner of my room and see that folder, I can’t help but wonder if God sees broken people the same way I’m learning to see broken things. I think He does. I’m learning that He does not waste our brokenness, but instead, uses it as a mechanism to fulfill His plans for our lives. He never fails to make us useful and functional for the Kingdom, no matter what phase of life we are in. I know that in my own life, He continues to constantly repurpose me, and through my brokenness He is making me new.

If there’s one thing I know about broken items, it’s that no matter how hard we try to fix them, they never turn out exactly the way they were before. The same thing happens when we hand the shattered pieces of our lives over to our Savior. He restores and repurposes, and we come out different; we come out changed. And therein lies the beauty of brokenness. From that point on, we’re never the same.

I pray that you would surrender to Him the broken pieces of your life and allow Him to make you new. Praise God for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit within us!



Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.