brokenness

I have been thinking a lot about broken things lately, since my car was hit and had to be repaired. I only got it back a few days ago, and I am noticing, even though it has been repaired and cleaned and polished, it still is not exactly the way it was when it was new. It is not back to the way it was before it was hit. I realize that is the way all things broken are. Nothing that is broken is ever quite the same as before, no matter how good a job the repair was. There will always be a crack, or a quirk, or something that just wasn't there before. Injuries are like that. Serious injuries never heal back to the way they were before. There is always a periodic ache, or some sort of loss of function, or some other imperfection that just is.
Life takes its toll on all of us, leaving us broken or wounded and never quite the same, no matter how much we've healed. We learn to overcome our shortcomings, get around our handicaps, but after we've lived a while we're going to have some scars and reminders of the pain. Little things that never quite work the same, proof that we've lived.
Thankfully, our redemption is not about fixing what is broken but trading old for new. If grace was about fixing what was broken we'd still be not quite right, still wishing maybe we could go back to when everything worked. Instead, we are promised new life, new creation, the old will pass away and the new will take its place. We groan with the whole creation to be clothed in new life, and help each other along in our brokenness until our cracks and scars can be transformed into new life. Amen.