When you
let God bind up your broken heart, an amazing thing happens. Your heart’s capacity to love is increased in
incredible ways. It almost makes you grateful
that your heart was torn because the after effects of observing God’s love
gaining more and more power in your soul by His healing touch were probably
impossible had your heart not been severed right down the middle.
The
largeness of a broken heart reminded me of one of my favorite books. It is Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the
Prodigal Son. In this book Henri
Nouwen is inspired by Rembrandt’s painting by the same title. A poster of the painting captured his
attention and led him to the parable in Luke 15 that inspired Rembrandt to
create the characters on canvas. His
book basically has three lessons. First,
we are all like the prodigal son; we have all left the home of God’s love and
acceptance by indulging in the world thus drowning out God’s call to our
eternal goodness. Second, we are all
like the elder son; we have all left God’s love and acceptance, though
appearing to follow God’s call yet without love as 1 Corinthians 13 describes. Lastly, we all are called to become like the
father in this parable—gaining such a deep and powerful love from God that we
become free to love others for His sake.
Henri Nouwen contrasts his own state of being with the love he observes
in this father when he writes:
Against
my own best intentions, I find myself continually striving to acquire
power. When I have advice, I want to
know whether it is being followed; when I offer help, I want to be thanked;
when I give money, I want it to be used my way; when I do something good, I
want to be remembered. I might not get a
statue, or even a memorial plaque, but I am constantly concerned that I not be
forgotten, that somehow, I will live on in the thoughts and deeds of others.
But
the father of the prodigal son is not concerned about himself. His long-suffering life has emptied him of
his desires to keep in control of things.
His children are his only concern, to them he wants to give himself
completely, for them he wants to pour out all of himself.
Psalm 119:71-72 says: It was good for me to be afflicted so that I
might learn your decrees. The law from
your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. Psalm 119:32 says: I will run the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. When God binds up your broken heart with the
truth of His word, agape love will pour out and actually become stitches that
heal the wound. When your heart
understands that God’s love is unfailing, eternal, powerful, life-giving,
hope-building, restoring your soul, you will experience what Dr. Suess
described: “And what happened, then? Well,
in Whoville they say—that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that
day. And then-the true meaning of
Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches, plus
two!”
Unfortunately, the father in this
parable could not demonstrate the love described by Nouwen had he not
experienced a broken heart by the actions of his two sons. This father wasn’t even a real person by all
accounts; rather he was an illustration Jesus used to broaden our minds to the
unreasonable, extravagant love God has for all people—both Jews and
Greeks. His heart is always eager to
come to us and bring us home. It usually
requires our own brokenhearted state to make us remember we need the love of
our Father. But when we finally make it
home, are embraced by our Father and receive His love and forgiveness, our
broken hearts get sewn back together with His chords of love. Perhaps it is the stitches of love that
create the capacity of our hearts to expand. His love enables us to genuinely
love the very people who tore our hearts in two.
Copyright © 2018. Deborah R Newman teatimeforyoursoul.com All Rights Reserved.
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