Marbles
As a kid, during lunch hour, I played marbles with friends at school. Just as it is with every generation of youngsters, we had our own jargon. Some types of marbles were cat’s eyes, aggies, steelies, tiger eyes, and shooters. A shooter was either bigger than a standard glass marble or it was a steel ballbearing.
The kids I played with were cutthroat; they always wanted to play “for keeps.” Our school policy forbade “keepsies,” which just made it more fun to play.
If a player knocked your marble out of the circle, then that player kept your marble! When I was growing up, a common colloquialism was to “lose your marbles,” which meant to lose your mind. Since most parents weren’t keen on constantly buying marbles, a kid had to have some skill to keep from losing all of his marbles!
Purposely fractured
I remember my mom looking at me as if I’d lost my marbles when I poured my new bag of marbles into a pot of boiling water. At the time, it was all the rage to make your glass marbles fracture inside. They looked really cool! Though fractured, the marbles didn’t break apart unless they were struck by a steely, then they’d shatter.
We are surrounded by people that are fractured. These people may look cool, be popular, successful, or influential, but if they are struck by one of life’s steelies, they will shatter into a million pieces; they will lose their marbles.
Fractured people
As Christians, we are called to minister to anyone we meet. The person we are talking to might be angry, full of rage, and spewing out caustic comments, but we must not respond in kind. That person may be fractured and fearing that one more of life’s blows will shatter their lives. We must “see” the person rather than seeing his or her appearance. That’s what Jesus did.
Some people brought to him [Jesus] a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.” – Matthew 9:2
Healing fractured lives
Jesus saw through the man’s disability and found sins, and it was the sins that He dealt with, and as a testimony to the religious leaders, Jesus healed the paralytic man.
As we navigate our way through the turmoil in this world, let’s remember that hurt people, hurt people. Jesus specializes in healing fractured lives. Let’s allow Him to work through us to minister life to everyone.
Photo by Crissy Jarvis on Unsplash
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