“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3)

Stuff breaks. All the time. And in America, with our overabundance of stuff, we have a lot of stuff breaking all the time. Too many things have built-in obsolescence!

Getting things fixed, though, can be tricky and expensive. Good luck getting someone quickly to your home to fix appliances, heating, or plumbing. Refrigerators now have a life expectancy of only 10 to 12 years, if that long. (Ours is more than 30 years old, and I’m amazed it’s still running…although it sounds like a Boeing 747 starting up when we open its door….)

For hundreds of years before the 21^st century, however, people had precious few possessions. There were no big-box stores and endless inventories of goods for replacement. Valuables like a cooking pot or a knife necessitated repair when broken, and unless the village had a blacksmith, there were no easy ways for mending things. 

During the pre-industrial days, itinerant repairmen wandered from town to town to fix metal pans, kettles, tools, and even china. These entrepreneurs were called “tinkers,” which is where we get the expression, “tinkering around.”

When glue wasn’t easily available for repairing broken pottery, metal staples could be used on the back of a plate or bowl, to seal cracks while preserving the artistic design on the front. The process involved drilling tiny holes and inserting heated staples, bringing the pieces snugly together as the staples cooled and shrank. 

Today, for some collectors, antique stapled china can be worth more than an intact piece—proof of a long-gone method of “fixing” something that would have been gone forever.

Our God is our Master Craftsman—everything He made in the Garden of Eden was perfect, unflawed, unbroken. Then, Satan came along and tempted us into ignoring God’s plan. Like much of the stuff we own today, we are broken at times, too. Shattered. Damaged. Malfunctioning. Trampled underfoot.

But beyond repair? Maybe not, because God is a Master Repairman as well. He’s in the business of mending broken hearts.

When we are beaten down by the trials of our lives, God is our ever-present help in trouble. Even when we are too crushed to ask Him for His help, He steps in—to lift us up out of the ash heap, dust us off, comfort us, and give us His peace. He loved us before we loved Him. He sacrificed Jesus for us, while we were still dead in our sins, to heal us and make us whole again. 

The writer to the Hebrews points to God for making us “complete” again in Him: “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21) 

When problems arise, we have a powerful Healer who will redeem us when we submit to Him, ask Him for forgiveness, seek His truth, trust in His word, and pray for His will to be done.

God is our “Master Tinker,” the One who repairs our visible and invisible wounds. Like those “tinkered plates,” we might have some painful staples on our backs, but God holds us together to make us whole again in Him. His faithfulness and mercies are new every morning, offered to us freely, without conditions.

Friend, if you’re struggling today with brokenness, ask Jesus Christ to bring His healing to your soul. Ask Him to take your exhausted, hot-mess life and pull the pieces back together. He will do it, for His glory and to build up His kingdom. He is our faithful Restorer. He will mend your broken heart, with His love.

Lord Jesus, I come to you with the pieces of my life, not able to make them new and whole again—only You can do that. I ask You to heal my heart, redeem the disasters in my life, and bring me back into functioning properly again for Your kingdom work. You have promised to give me spiritual gifts—I ask You to reveal them to me and give me opportunities, energy, and courage to bless others with them. In Your healing name, Amen.

© Copyright 2023 Nancy C. Williams, Lightbourne Creative (text and photography)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

To learn more about the grace of Jesus Christ, go to this page: https://lightbournecreative.com/good-news-for-you/