Curbside Service

There used to be a show on HGTV called Junk Brothers. Steve and Jim Kelley were two men on a mission. Each night they would go out in search of items destined for the trash, but which they believed had the potential to be fixed up, redone and made over into stunning pieces of furniture worthy of a showroom floor. Unbeknownst to the family, the brothers took the curbside castoff, transformed it and returned the piece on the eve of the following garbage day. The families couldn’t believe the transformation. What they once saw as worthless now had purpose and beauty.
I only saw one or two episodes of this show years ago but I was thinking of it today as I was listening to one of my favorite songs by All Sons and Daughters called “Brokenness Aside“.

Will your grace run out
If I let you down
‘Cause all I know
Is how to run
‘Cause I am a sinner
If its not one thing its another
Caught up in words
Tangled in lies
You are the Savior
And you take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful
Beautiful
Will you call me child
When I tell you lies
Cause all I know
Is how to cry
I am a sinner
If its not one thing its another
Caught up in words
Tangled in lies
You are the Savior
And you take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful
Beautiful

Some of you feel like you’ve been dumped on the curb like worthless junk. People used you up and threw you out. You’ve been battered by abusive words and deeply scarred by hidden wounds. Maybe you didn’t think you were finished but the more you heard people say you were worthless or broken beyond repair you began to believe it. What good could possibly come from you? How could this brokenness ever be repaired? You are junk.
Some of us walk ourselves out to the curb and plop ourselves down ready to be hauled off. We failed. We let God or others down. We feel conquered rather than conquerers. The cycle of our sin seems endless and we come to a point where common sense tells us that we are beyond repair, beyond forgiveness.
In the darkness, we lay broken and defeated on the curbside waiting to be hauled away, to get what we deserve.
And in the night, our Abba comes searching for His beloved who believe themselves destined for the trash. But our God is a Creator, an Artist. He never seeks junk. He only sees beauty. He believes we have the potential to be fixed up, to be repaired, to be made into stunning pieces worthy of a showroom floor. Our Abba transforms us and sets us back on our feet.
Our Savior takes our brokenness aside and makes it beautiful. And He will do it over and over and over again.
He does it because He loves us. He does it because we are His creation and He adores us. He does it because when He repairs our brokenness and makes us stunning, the world is our showroom. And God knows that for every child that has allowed Him to make her brokenness beautiful, there is another broken child who needs to see that it is possible. Because if God could do that in your life than just maybe …. maybe He can do that in mine.
God’s strength is showcased in our brokenness. God’s grace is leveraged in our weakness.
If you are sitting on the curb feeling utterly broken and like junk, there is a Creator God who not only can restore you; He longs to restore you. To make you beautiful.
If you were once on the curb and God has made beauty out of your brokenness, tell your story. Allow God to leverage your weakness to show His strength. Someone needs to know that hope is possible for them too.
Do you have a story of how God has brought beauty out of brokenness? Would you share it in the comments or in some other way so that it can be a showcase to God’s goodness and grace? If you are on the curb right now, God is near. His Word promises that He is near the brokenhearted. Cry out to Him and He will hear you. Find a local faith community or friend who can pray with you and walk with you while you are in the nighttime of this journey and will stay with you while God begins bringing beauty from the broken.