A Blessing in the Broken Things

I’d waited weeks for this moment: toes in the sand, waves crashing in the distance, sun warming my soul. I watched as my two-year-old made happy piles of sand in front of me, experiencing the beach for the first time.

Then from beside me I heard a sigh and a mutter. “It’s not fair. I wasted my money.”

My ten-year-old son pouted and kicked his body board further from him. From the outside it looked fine, blue cloth stretched over the foam core displaying South Carolina’s traditional palmetto tree and crescent. But beneath the covering, the board was broken in two.

After only a handful of wave rides, Colin’s board had cracked and so had Colin. He shouted and kicked his board ahead of him throwing it down on the ground next to his baby sister and plopped himself next to me.

“It’s just not fair,” he said again, reiterating his frustration with the quality versus the amount paid. His eight-year-old sister’s $5 board was still intact after many wave rides.

We sat in silence for a few minutes when we saw commotion coming from the beach just a few yards down from where my son had been playing in the water some fifteen minutes prior. Lifeguards were running and people gathered.

Like water trickling over the stones in a brook, just two words made their way back through each pod of sun lovers and finally to us.

“Shark attack!”

After watching and listening to the bubble of news that popped up here and there, we saw the lifeguard transport a teenage girl with a bandaged foot and hand past us to a waiting ambulance.

My husband got on his phone to see if there was any news of what happened only to find there were four separate shark attacks in a matter of a few hours.

We continued to enjoy the sun and sand, avoiding the water for the next couple of hours. It wasn’t until later – much later – that evening when my own father, at the beach with us, said the words that struck me.

“Colin, you were so upset about your board breaking. But do you realize that if it hadn’t been for that board breaking, you would have probably been in the water with that shark? You were right down there. It’s a good thing the board broke.”

Is $14.99 too much to pay for the safety of my child? My head shakes at the absurdity, and I wonder how many times I’ve paid such small amounts for blessings.

Sometimes God blesses us in the broken things. In His infinite wisdom, He understands that sometimes brokenness is in our best interest. Yet, so often we pout and kick and cry telling Him, “It’s not fair!”

Are you looking at some broken areas of your own life, feeling you’ve been treated wrong? Ask God to help open your eyes to the sharks, and praise Him for His ultimate protection.

But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. Psalm 5:11 NIV