This particular Saturday morning, as I look outside my window, all seems calm, the Avocado fruit tree in the compound exudes serenity, I can even hear the rustlings of a broom downstairs, somebody is tidying up.
It’s a morning that befits the description “the world is beautiful”
But is it?
Because a few stairs on the same balcony I am reading 1 & 2 Samuel, and the stories of beautiful- but- broken Old Testament people strike me like lightning. Take for example.
King Saul, called out of attending to Kish’s donkeys (1 Sam 9), “handsome, head taller than anyone” (2) but later turns a murderer hunter of David, “consulting mediums” (1 Sam 28:7)
King David, same history, called out humble shepherding, (1 Sam 17:20) features in an adulterous act of Hollywood proportions (2 Sam 11) murders Uriah, and even attempts to reconstruct evidence. – Whoah!
We are not yet there.
Because David’s sons are not about to easily let go of the “beautiful-but- broken” label.
Absalom, most handsome in Israel, “from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him. “ (2 Sam 14:25) yet murdered his own brother Amnon. (2 Sam 13)
Oh Absalom, the murderous and (temporary) hijacker of the Davidic kingdom yet giving birth to a girl that was described as “a beautiful woman” (2 Samuel 14:27)
We haven’t even talked about Solomon, wisest man ever, yet the women he compiled by numbers surely “led his heart from the lord.” (1 Kings 11:4)
Or Noah, chosen to save the world in Genesis 7, yet overtaken by drunkenness in Gen 9.
What about…
Actually, If you want a long line of heroes, the Old Testament may not be a healthy place to look,
But neither is your world today, beneath the Avocado trees, the neat boardrooms, the stirring sounds in coffee shops across the street, thousands of beautiful-yet-broken stories abound.
A smart nurse bends to deliver bad news in a top healthcare facility, an Engineer absentee Dad flirts with the third woman – not his wife – in a space of a month, just by the parking lot.
A 24-year petite student incessantly scrolls her Instagram as the weight of insecurity pulls, she keeps adjusting her wig.
What not? You could improve this list.
Beautiful-but-broken stories all around us, with the Old Testament only launching.
Thank God all this served as shadow leading to reality, a preamble to the one who knew no sin yet become sin on our behalf —Jesus! (2 Cor 5:21)
In a world of superficialities and truncated selfisms, you need somebody that not only relieves your burdens but also never leaves you as he finds you.
Paul describes God’s work to the Corinthians as “inwardly being renewed, yet outwardly wasting away. “ (2 Cor 4:16) – A spot on assessment for the beautiful-and-broken.
Next time you look across your window, maybe ponder beyond the high heels, the avocado trees, and the German automobiles.
Because like God says somewhere amidst our brokenness, “man looks on the outside but God looks on the inside.” (1 Sam 16:7)
And what If that’s just another way to describe a beautiful-but-broken people?
