All the world feels bruised today. We have rain coming down making sure all the garbage of the city is mushed under foot. A gum wrapper here, a cigarette butt there, dirt of a city everywhere.
And in the United States, Oklahoma is grieving while so many grieve with her. The hardest of hearts must melt with the stories of small children drowning at an elementary school. The softest of hearts may question a God of love during this time as news report after report tell of loss and death.
Sometimes you don’t have the words yourself and you choose to use the words of others. Today I am sending you to read the words of a mom and goodbyes, for though the grief has not the severity of death, it still bruises, still hurts.
Bruising Seasons. – here is an excerpt from this beautiful article.
“It’s a bruising feeling. Deflating and depleting. And I want to say, to the men who tell us the kids have passed the visa checks and are out of sight, to our guard when we return from the airport, to the woman who taps on our window and asks for water, to my husband, can you let me be bruised for a little while?
There’s a bruised reed in Isaiah 42:3 and God does not order it to stand upright. He does not force it into a strong pose. He does not cut it down. He does not stomp on it or grind it into the dirt. He doesn’t laugh at it and he doesn’t demand it try really hard to be unbruised, or to turn away and mask the bruise.
He makes a promise. His Servant will not break it. A bruised reed he will not break…….Read the entire article here.
Those words I choose to remember this day: “A bruised reed he will not break…”
What about you? You can’t go through life for long without experiencing a bruising season. What help do you look for when bruised?
Marilyn R. Gardner 
Thank you, Marilyn for posting. Well said, Jessica. This was a very timely word for a very difficult long season my husband and I are walking through. To know we don’t have to always put on face and march forward. Sometimes we can just lay down and rest, and even cry. To understand that God will not allow us go be broken but he will be there for us and loves us so much even in the midst of the pain. And even sends encouragement like this to lift us up so we can dry our tears and move forward.
Thank you, Marilyn for the encouragement you send out every day!
Bless you!
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Thank you so much Debbie – “Drying our tears and moving forward” – I had to do that this morning so I am grateful for your comment. And your generous words at the end meant so much to me. Perfect timing.
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This is such a amazing post. Sometimes when we’re bruised and hurting, all we have the strength to do is lay there and cry. It hurts. We don’t want to get up; all we want to do is cry. And that’s ok. Sometimes healing comes through tears; sometimes we need to know that we’re loved infinitely more than we even understand; sometimes we just need a friend to hold our hand and tell us it’s going to be ok. Hiding the fact that we’re broken and bruised only prolongs the process!
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Oh – such truth in this. Your last sentence says it – so easy to try and hide and yet we’re kidding no one. It comes out in other ways. Thank you Jessica.
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