A profound part of my journey in moving from a place of emotionally surviving into connected living has come through encounters with Jesus.  He has an amazing, powerful, grace-and-love-filled way of taking places of pain in my heart and exchanging them with His healing truth and perspective.  One experience of this exchange happened a few years ago.  I was wanting to be free of some deep, nagging emotional pain.  As I took time to ask Him where I had first encountered these feelings, He reminded me of a memory when I was a little girl – I was in a room with other people, but felt really alone, unseen and broken.  As I focused on what I was feeling, the word that came to mind was “shattered”.  This felt really true.  Remembering that Jesus told His followers that He is always with us, I asked Him what His perspective was of this memory.  He gave me a mental picture of a huge pile of broken glass.  At first I didn’t understand, but then He showed me a picture of the mosaic table I was working on at the time.  Through these pictures He spoke deeply to my heart. He showed me that He has taken what feels shattered and has made it into something beautiful, and of deep value.  My identity is not in that place of being broken, but the wholeness and beauty that has been formed into a unique and priceless work of art.  His perspective and love in this former place of pain brought healing and peace to my past and my present.

Are there places in your present life that feel stuck and entwined with the past?  

I bless you with this promise from Jesus –

“I leave the gift of peace with you – my peace.  Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace.  Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts – instead, be courageous!”  John 14:27