We live in a broken world. It doesn't take much to highlight this on a daily basis, nor does it take a news report or a national tragedy. It's right before us in the suffering, grief, hunger, homelessness, illness, injustice, and hurts that penetrate our own lives. One look in the mirror at our aging face, the graying hair (or what's left of it), the wrinkles of time, laughter, and worry.

Yep. The world is broken...

...yet filled with such beauty. 

I'm not talking only about the sunrises and sunset or even the stars and constellations, but the beauty of humanity, of love, grace, kindness, family, and friendships; and what about the joy in a child's wonder, of your team winning a critical game, of receiving an unexpected (and undeserved) gift. What God created, from planets to plants and insects to animals and even humans is all pretty incredible...

...and beautiful; "Supremely good." as the author of Genesis reports. 

And worth redeeming. 

It's what God has always been about; why Jesus came to live among us; to find our way back to the image God had from the beginning. 

Jesus had just finished answering the question about the most important commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) when he said,“How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You give to God a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, but you forget about the more important matters of the Law: justice, peace, and faith. You ought to give a tenth but without forgetting about those more important matters." Matthew 23:23, CEB. 

 Later the same day he found himself on the slopes of the Mount of Olives overlooking the gleaming city of Jerusalem. He was heartbroken. He said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You who kill the prophets and stone those who were sent to you. How often I wanted to gather your people together, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you didn’t want that." Matthew 23:37, CEB. 

A broken world for sure, but worth dying for! 

And worth living for. I mean is there anything more beautiful that justice, peace, and faith? 

It's what God has in store for us, to experience, and to share so that the whole thing becomes even more beautiful...

...and no longer broken.