Hope for the Broken

“Moses told this to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.” Exodus 6:9

There are few greater joys in my life than my three children. Though they all are now grown and out of the house, the memories of their childhood and the relationship we have as adults combine to give me great delight. I loved watching their first steps as babies, and their first steps into college, family and careers. I am grateful to have three loving, yet very different children.


Our two oldest are boys, now 33 and 29. Michael, or oldest, was a real cuddler as a baby and young child. His favorite way to be carried was facing me with his head on my shoulder or buried into my neck. Jonathan was playful. He enjoyed cuddling as well, but he had so many others things to do as well. He liked to be held laying face down in my arms.

Ten years after Jonathan came our 19 year old daughter, Sarah. (No, she wasn’t born at the age of 19, silly reader.) As a child, she was our least cuddly. Before she was born I had conjured up pictures of my little girl wanting to do nothing else than cuddle with her dad. And she did, but not to the level of my imagination. Our favorite time was both falling to sleep on the couch while I watched Sunday afternoon football. Her favorite way to be held was upright and facing outward. If I held her facing me, she would usually work hard to turn around; she didn’t want to miss a thing.

I grew up in a family of huggers, and I love hugging my kids. Recently I was visiting with a couple of friends who adopted a baby girl about around 17 months old. She had been the victim of domestic abuse, and they offered the safety of a loving home. They also have two older sons, one well into his teens, and mom is taking all the cuddle time she can get; with an eye toward the day he will be less comfortable with snuggle time with her. Their girl wasn’t sure what to make of all this cuddling at first.

The mom told me how Brandi would stand at arms’ length when watching either of her brothers cuddling with mom or dad. It is not hard to imagine why, having experience physical touch as threat and danger in her early months. But her adopted parents kept at it, holding out their arms to her, gently picking her up, but laying her down and staying close by if she resisted. Slowly little Brandi came around. Now at three years of age, she’s a champion cuddler. It took time for her to “hear” the good news that she finally had a safe family.

I think that is much like what happened to the Israelites. God told Moses, “I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant,” and Moses conveyed the message to the nation. But they had been slaves so long, groaning under the fear of constant harm and the pain of having personal liberty stripped from them, that Moses’ words sounded foreign to them, untranslatable due to their wounded existence.

I wonder how often God looks on us, hears our groaning, and wants to tell us, “I haven’t forgotten my promise. I still love you, I have always loved you. I am honoring the trust you have in my Son. I have never withdrawn my love or the treasures of My kingdom from you.” And, needful as those words are, we count them gibberish. Or, we rewrite them in our own mind, based on our own life experience.

Perhaps a religious authority was cold toward us; only acknowledging us to correct our mistakes. Or maybe the love in our family was given only when earned by living up to various expectations. Maybe our parents were simply unaffectionate and distant. We may even have come through the tragedy of domestic violence or sexual abuse; nearly always perpetrated by a known family member with authority.

So, here comes the Master of everything, the Authority who holds every decision about everything and every person in His hands, telling us, “I still love you,” and we can’t hear it; our spirits are broken due to the cruel slavery we have experienced. It colors everything we do, even our attempts at following Jesus. When others hear, “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” the broken in spirit hear only the rumble of traffic in the distance, because the “love” they have experienced either had to be earned or paid for, or it had expectations attached. If God “loves” them that way, it is truly a scary thought.

With the Israelites, God proved His love by acting on their behalf, showing His power over and over to Pharaoh, and finally delivering them across the Red Sea in miraculous fashion. He has acted on the entire world’s behalf, sending Jesus to the cross where His suffering gave tangible expression to the sort of love God has for us.

If God’s overture of love rings shallow to you, take a second look at Jesus’ decision to die for your sake. God never asks us to stand up, dust ourselves off and start climbing some steep, dangerous ladder to His Kingdom in Heaven. Instead, seeing us from Heaven, God came down in Christ, offering the unconditional love He has always had for mankind. If you are broken today, be assured, God is only interested in healing. He is deeply invested in taking life’s dark pain and turning to a renewal of authentic love.