I like buying new things, who doesn’t? I like it when everything is fresh and clean and unspoiled.

A week ago I threw out some old towels that were looking scrappy (and was it just my nose, or were they getting a tad bit smelly?)

I then put some towels I’d had for a while but barely used up to the top of the pile in the bathroom cupboard.

They were basically new and definitely unspoiled.

But then I went to pull one of them out of the cupboard to hang on the rack and because it was at the top of the pile now, some of its threads got caught in the hinge of the cupboard door and were now spread across the towel.

It had been new. Now it was spoiled.

‘Well, that’s the fallen world you’re living in’ I told myself and moved on, now in the direction of my kitchen cupboard to get a bowl.

Upon opening the cupboard I was horrified to see that my favourite Tupperware bowl had a big, irreparable split down one side.

My favourite bowl (because, yes, this sad case actually has one of those).

It was very old, clearly worn on the inside and a hand-me-down from probably the 1980s. But it was perfect. Always the go-to bowl for baking. Just the right size: depth and width.

But now it was broken.

If this post is anything to go by, I’m more concerned by the broken bowl than I possibly should be, but I had been thinking only that morning about just how much I loved it.

Broken towel. Broken bowl.

It’s the fallen world we live in. Things just keep breaking and there’s nothing we can do about it.

I’m not good with that.

When Officeworks first opened I used to love standing at their massive wall of paper because it was all so clean and fresh. I know I’m not the only one who did that because I’ve had conversations about it.

There’s at least two of us.

But brokenness is something that we have to get used to on this side of eternity.

And it’s not just items like towels and bowls. God does seem to have a habit of breaking His people as a way of getting their attention. Yet, he says that he will never take it too far:

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.

Even if it’s hard to believe that God will never take us beyond what we can handle – I have trouble believing that – we can hear God saying this much:

You are seen.

You are loved.

God longs for justice, even more than we do. And even when it feels like there’s more than just towels and bowls breaking all around us.

Let the Spirit of a loving God lift you up and impress upon your heart today just how precious you are to Him.

…the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!

You are more valuable than you know.

Yours never finding a better bowl,

Alison