The Broken Baby Jesus and the Angel
Author Unknown
A few years ago my parents decided to purchase a life size ceramic nativity for their yard. It had a Joseph and a Mary, and an almost life size baby Jesus. This nativity was as fragile as it was beautiful. After we had opened the boxes and each nativity piece had been unpacked, my dad felt that the nativity scene needed a stable. So while my dad went to work building- Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus hung out in the garage.
One day while working on the stable my dad went to pick up the baby Jesus, thinking it was attached to the manger. As he did so, baby Jesus fell out and broke all over the concrete floor. The sight of Him in pieces made me sad and my mom could not bear the thought of throwing Him away. (Now this is the part in the story where I make a confession. I am a “craft lady”. You know, it’s kind of like a “cat lady” but worse. I have shelves and shelves of fabric, clay, paint etc… some say its teetering on the verge of either madness or genius, let’s leave it at genius.)
Anyway, after baby Jesus had broken, my mom remembered my “genius” and brought Him and all of His pieces to me. It took hours of piecing, gluing and painting. In the end, baby Jesus made it back to the manger in the garage, waiting for the stable to be finished. A few days later my brother, again moving things around, decided to pick up the manger and move the baby Jesus. As he did it fell out again and shattered. And of course, throwing away baby Jesus was not an option. So again, my mom brought Him and all of His pieces to me. It took longer this time and things seemed more broken than ever, but through patience and perseverance we were able to fix Him and make Him whole.
A friend of mine overheard the baby Jesus story, and had decided if I could fix Him, I would surely be able to fix her broken Christmas angel. She called me in tears because it had been in her family for generations, and it meant so much to her. I told her simply, I will try. When she came to drop it off, I could see that it was a large, golden angel. So large that there was an entire nativity scene at the bottom. To my horror it wasn’t just broken, a section of the wing, part of a hand, and Joseph’s head were completely missing. I wondered how I could ever repair something that wasn’t there, it was discouraging. I looked at this angel and decided to put it in my craft room for a while. I ignored it for several days and even called my friend at one point saying that it just wasn’t possible. But she insisted that if I could fix the baby Jesus, I could fix her angel.
Unsure of where to begin or how to make something out of nothing, I prayed. I prayed to know what I could possibly do… “Please Heavenly Father I don’t know how to fix this angel, it is broken, there are pieces missing, please help me fix it.”
And as I held that angel, the spirit spoke to me. It was as if I could hear a voice saying “take some clay and lay it here, make an impression of the right wing and place it there, oh and check your molds, see if you can repair Joseph’s head”… sure enough I had a mold of a little man that looked just like Joseph. In the end, through prayer and with the help of the spirit, I was able to fix that angel and make it whole again.
As I have looked back over the years I have learned a few lessons through this experience. First and foremost, that each of us at least once in our life, if not several times, will feel broken. Broken to the point of feeling irreparable. We will feel like things are shattered in a million pieces on the floor. We might even feel like pieces of us are missing that can never be found. But I want you to know that there is One who can repair us, One who can help us and make us whole...our Savior Jesus Christ. He is there to guide us and send help when we feel alone. He will speak to us and say “pick up that piece of clay, lay it there, or use this paint and put it there.” He doesn’t even care that pieces are missing, He will take all you have to offer and make it better. You just have to simply say “I will try.” When I finished fixing the angel was it perfect? No, of course not. There were still some cracks that could be seen, but she was beautiful and whole. Not whole as in “perfect” but whole as in “parts working together as one” (you and Him)… whole.
He has promised us that it is through our imperfections that we will find him. It is through our cracks and our trials that He will come to us and his light can shine.
To quote the words of Leonard Cohen:
“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in”
May we remember that no matter how broken we feel that there is One, even Jesus Christ, who was willing to descend below it all. It was He who was bruised, broken and made whole again so that He could know how to fix us. He will be there in all of our brokenness, He is the Master Healer.
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