HeaLinG?

i heard this analogy once and i liked it. there are 3 tables. one of the tables is beautifully set with delicate china that looks way too nice to even eat off of. the next table is empty, but on the floor next to it is a placesetting of that same china, broken though, into a million different pieces. its been shattered and the fragments of it lie there on the floor. on the 3rd, the place setting is back on the table, but instead of the perfect looking china like that of the first, this placesetting looks as if it had been the broken one, but had been glued back together. this is a picture of how God can use us. He made us as like the china of the first table. beautiful. whole. shiny. perfect. yet because of the fall, because of our lives stenched with sin, we've all been broken. some of us pretend to have only broken into a couple pieces, some of us admit we've been crushed into millions of pieces. the 3rd table reminds us of our Maker. perfectly capable of bringing us back to our perfected glory in Eternity, yet willing to begin that process in the here and now, gluing us piece by piece into a picture that resembles our full redemption placesetting waiting for us on the otherside. in the meantime, i think, its the gluing process that is most important. today, especially here in 2006 America,it seems as though everyone wants that quick fix, the instant cure, the 10 steps to be healed. i don't think thats how God planned it. in fact, i think sometimes(dare i say most times..), Hes even working when we feel as though we're just being broken into more pieces. after time continues to go on by, with no, "IVE BEEN HEALED" moments of epiphany (which im sure happen to some..) maybe it feels as though i've been forgotten. but thats the miracle of God's plan. theres never been a moment where i've felt He's picked up all my scattered, shattered pieces and glued me back together. He does it differently. His style seems to be piece by piece. day by day. moment by moment. apparently i have so many pieces to put back together that sometimes i don't feel His hand gently gluing and arranging the pieces back because they are so small. but every so often i realize, hey, this part of me has been healed. or i don't think this way or that anymore, God's changed that part of me. or this part no longer hurts . ive had another piece thats been redeemed. and slowly as it seems at times, i realize that pieces are getting glued back together, I am healing. God is going piece by piece. and He reminds me, that only the broken placesettings can be used by Him here on earth. Perfection will come, someday, but in the meantime, the brokenness has a purpose. its those being glued that God will use for His glory. He will use each and every cut and hurt and piece of that broken china for His glory. Maybe to help someone else start the process of getting glued up. who knows. but He promises to heal the broken. and then He uses their brokenness, all for His Glory. its a fabulous process really. doesn't feel fabulous lots of the time. but then you realize that feeling is just part of the process too, and concede. ive conceded. ive begun to be glued.