Broken

We all experience varying degrees of pain throughout our lives. Anything from a paper cut to the death of a loved one and everything in between. When I was 12 or 13, I went and visited my great aunt and uncle down near Houston and hung out with my cousin. It was near my birthday (July 4th if you didn't know) so fireworks were readily available and they lived out in the woods so we were free to do what all teenage boys want to do...blow things up! Long story short, as I lit a small string of black cats my brain failed to tell my hand to let go of them and I just about blew my thumb off.

It hurt....REALLY bad. Then it swelled up, turned funny colors, and went numb. I was sincerely worried that it was going to just fall off. It didn't, but as you might suspect I have been overly cautious around fireworks ever since. Lesson learned.

There are always lessons to be learned in life, but especially during our times of pain. There is healing that follows pain and I truly believe that we can come out the other side of that pain with a deeper understanding of God's love for us, because He may not have been the cause of our pain but He most definitely is there with us through the healing.