Broken and Beautiful

...the message of the sermon I listened to at church today. Broken accurately describes the condition of my heart right now, and what comfort I find in the fact that 'The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit' (ps 34:18). In receiving the news that two of my lovely patients went home to Jesus this week, it's hard not to really feel for the families who lost them. There are a lot of emotions and questions surrounding their deaths, but thankfully, death is not the end of their story - just as we're reminded today that it wasn't the end of HIS story. As much as it hurts, praise God that these amazing women get to face Him on this Resurrection Sunday and now have eternal, leukemia-free bodies.

"The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre -
To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire."
-T.S. Eliot

"Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may. Why do I put myself in jeopardy and take my life in my hands? Though he slay me, yet will I hope in Him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless man would dare come before him!" -Job 13:13-16