Put It Together

Life is fragile – handle with prayer!

Sometimes you have to start at the end of the story to gain proper perspective – like putting all the straight edges together first and working your way toward the center of a giant jigsaw puzzle.

“We’re getting married Augiss firthieth!” she announced, with hands on her hips and eyebrows raised, her friend nodding enthusiastically in agreement.

The two little dark-haired beauties were excited with all the wedding plans — dresses and shoes and parties — but they didn’t really see it as a romantic day set aside to celebrate the marriage of one’s girl’s Mom to the other girl’s Dad. In fact, they weren’t impressed with that at all. One seemed most taken with the prospect of having a Daddy — the other, with having a sister. In their minds, it was a family affair, so they told everyone they met that they were getting married and would soon be sisters!

Neither one had any idea of the loneliness their own parent had endured, the brokenness that crushed them or the daily challenges they faced as a single parent – alone with feelings of inadequacy and failure, alone with the heartache and tears.

I knew their story well and had begun singing this song from the moment her parents received her desperate call for help, driving hundreds of miles to bring their broken little grown up girl back home. So when the bride-to-be asked me to write a song for her wedding, it was like déjà vu:

Can you put this together, Daddy?
I don’t know what to do;
I only know that whenever this happens
I run right back to you!

My heart ached for her as she began collecting the remnants of what used to be a young girl’s dreams, attempting to create some stability in the process for the little baby girl she would soon bring into this world. I prayed she’d find hope and healing, with a measure of happiness and strength along the way.

I am so happy to report that she did find all of that and more. Oh, and by the way, so has the young man who was waiting in her home town for God to do the same for him.

As for me, in order to finish the song I had to start in the moment and look into the shining eyes of those precious little girls to fully appreciate the miracle that was taking place. I was reminded that to God, we are all as little children and our grownup problems must seem mighty small in His capable hands. We bring them to Him on a daily basis (sometimes the same thing over and over) but He is never preoccupied, never too busy, never unwilling to help the child He loves so dearly, for He knows what we are made of.

You take all the pieces that lie shattered
Or a picture torn in two
And you put it together,
But sometimes make it new!

Only God can put your life back together. Only God can make things new. Only God can make it safe for you to become that trusting child again, so run to Him! Run to your Heavenly Father and let Him do what He alone can do!

He sees. He knows. He cares.

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you. I Peter 5:6-7

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