Psalms 31:12; 34:18; 51:10, 17
I am like a broken vessel.
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The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
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Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. . . .
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Sometimes the events of life can damage our highest hopes and dreams. Some of our sweetest possessions and most cherished ideals end up being bruised, and sometimes they are broken. In the world of items we treasure we may break a lovely piece of china or a pocket watch handed down from an ancestor. Sometimes even bones break, and even more painfully, marriages or family ties are broken. In severed circumstances we truly feel “like a broken vessel”; we are certain that, as with Humpty Dumpty, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men will never be able to put us together again.
But someone wrote once that God apparently loves—and turns to our benefit—broken things. It takes broken clouds to nourish the earth, it takes broken earth to grow grain, it takes broken grain to make bread, it takes broken bread to nourish us, and so are the cycles of life. This divine sequence is akin to the Savior’s parable that no kernel of corn can grow to fruition until it is first thrown away and, in effect, lost in the earth before its bounty can come back to us.89
So it is with broken hearts and contrite spirits. We must remember that the children of God are still under covenant to sacrifice. However, we do not offer the firstlings of the flock or the initial harvest from the vineyard anymore. No, with the coming of Christ, that kind of sacrifice was put to an end and we were commanded to offer newer symbols of Christ’s Atonement: “Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.”90
It may be that among all the broken things God loves, He loves a broken heart most of all. So when our day of sacrifice comes—and perhaps sorrow will come with it—be trusting and be believing. Know that God will accept your offering and that, through the great miracle of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He will give your heart back to you healed and whole. That is the ultimate truth taught by the Resurrection. Christ, the Great Healer, will make recompense for us in time and in eternity. By His grace and the goodness of God, all broken vessels are fully repaired.
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