The other day on my weekly Zoom small group call, someone posed the question, “What one word would you use to summarize 2020?” Unsettling. Junky. Frustrating. Disappointing. Slowly we each shared our own one-word summary, until it came to be my turn. Sure, there are many words I could use to describe 2020; I know each of us could come up with a few right now. In that moment, though, one word came to my mind as I sat on my deck looking out across my yard: “Broken.”
The word came to me as I stared across the grass to what I lovingly have dubbed my “pear bush.” When I bought my home fifteen years ago, I inherited my own mini-garden of fruit-bearing vegetation: a large fig tree, a fence-line full of blackberry bushes, and a tall, stately pear tree. Over the years, my family and friends have enjoyed the backyard harvest in cobblers, salads, preserves, breads, and so on. About five years ago, during one of our big winter storms, the pear tree snapped at the base of the trunk, toppling the large tree to the ground and leaving less than 25% of the trunk connected at the base. I thought for sure that come springtime I would need to cut up the tree and discard the broken pieces. Yet in the spring, the leaves of the tree began to grow, the crisp white blossoms appeared, and the tree—now lying fully on its side in the yard—grew toward the sky and bore fruit once again. It was no longer my pear tree but now my “pear bush.”
Life and beauty and strength can be found in that which is broken. We see this miracle every day, all around us. I think of the people served through our mission ministry: the woman who escaped trafficking and rebuilt her life alongside others at Wellspring Living; the family who found themselves on the street with nowhere to live but then found Nicholas House and are working to restore their lives; the young girl in Malawi who was able to escape an early marriage and who is now attending Technical School, piecing together her future as an electrician; and the single mother who, working as a massage therapist, will now be able to afford a permanent home of her own with the help and support of Habitat for Humanity volunteers, who are constructing her house, board by board. The examples are endless of individuals who have come from a broken place but who have found incredible strength in the midst of that brokenness.
In John 16:32-33, Jesus speaks to His disciples as He prepares them for His imminent arrest, trial, and death. He also prepares them for their own disbanding and abandonment of Him, saying, “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jesus is clear that there will be pain, there will be discomfort, and there will be brokenness. But there will also be comfort, there will be peace, there will be restoration, and there will be salvation through God, our Father.
So, yes, when I summarize 2020 in one word, I think, “Broken.” However, when I think of “broken,” I see a brokenness that brings many blessings: a unique strength, a beautiful grace for those around me, a sense of redeeming power over pain and fear, and assured comfort in knowing that—through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior—there comes a restoration of my soul. Even though I may suffer through chips and cracks, ultimate salvation is mine one day.