Scarred and Broken, but Loved!

I have had the same coffee mug for almost ten years, maybe longer. It has been to crime scenes, church, and camps. It has traveled from California, all the way up the east coast. The poor cup has fallen off trucks, tractors, and cars. It has always survived. Until the other day…

I was getting into the RV and the cup fell. No big deal, it has happened literally hundreds of times. Not this time. The handle broke off!

I was in shock! This mug has survived so much, only to be broken by a three-foot fall! It’s like an Abram’s tank being taken down by driving over a pebble!

I took a moment to grieve my old friend. The next morning I made coffee in a virtually identical mug, but it just didn’t seem the same. It wasn’t MY mug, even though it belonged to me.

I started looking for replacement mugs on Amazon, and I found one. I just couldn’t pull the trigger.

In the end, I drank coffee out of my now handleless mug today, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I thought about using epoxy to attach the handle but decided against it. Like the paint that has chipped off, and the dents, the lost handle is part of the cup now.

Like my cup, I have quite a few miles on me. I’ve got bum knees, a bad back, and assorted other niggling little issues. Put it all together in a not very attractive package and you have Jerry Godsey.

And God loves me, scars and all. None of my shortcomings change His love for me. The aches and pains and broken parts of me don’t change His love. Even my sin can’t make Him love me less.

Paul wrote in Romans 8:35-39:

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That kind of love can only come from God! The great thing is that He loves you like that, too. No matter how far you have been from Him, he still loves you, and He desperately wants you back. Even if your handle is broken off, God will still treasure you.

So now when I drink out of my scarred and broken mug every morning, I will think of God’s love for me, a love that transcends my failings and shortcomings, and I will give thanks for God’s amazing love for me, and for you.

You know, I think I’ll make an afternoon cup of coffee in my broken, scarred mug. And I will love it!