I had two fractures in my life, both occuring when I was a child. The first was my leg. I fell off a bunkbed as a tender, evidently fragile-boned five year old. I won't go into the details of how I sort of threw myself off the bed, angry at my mom, instead I'll focus on the pain, the intense pain that followed. We were in the city of Jacobabad in Pakistan, far from good medical care. My parents weren't sure how serious this was so we waited overnight. I will never forget that night. I came in and out of sleep, pain waking me up at every move, my pain medication that of my mom's soothing voice reading to us from the book Rainbow Garden. The next day we drove along bumpy roads to get to a mission hospital in the city of Sukkur. I ended up with a cast on my leg from ankle to thigh.
The second fracture happened when I was 11 while playing the child's game "Steal the Bacon." I got the bacon, but I fell onto my left wrist. Again I felt the intense pain, the pain of a fractured bone.
You never forget the excruciating pain of a physical fracture. Bone pain is described by medical professionals as deeper, sharper, and more intense than muscle pain. Yet, as hard as that pain is, emotional fractures in families, friendships, and societies cause far more pain. And unlike fractured bones, a cast or brace put on by a skilled physician is not available.
While many have never had fractured bones, my guess is that most of us know the pain of fractured relationships. Most of us know the pit in the stomach, the sleepless nights, the grieving too deep for tears that comes as a result of these fractures. We would give anything for a cast, anything for pain medication, anything to relieve the deep ache.
I'm in a season of fractures, fractures that I don't know what to do with, fractures that cloud my vision and hurt to the bone. These are fractures that have few answers. In addition, I live in a society that has profound fractures. Fractures that, though they be societal, have bones that reach into families and friendships. These too are fractures with few answers.
And if the fractures are not difficult enough, the public response is deafening. So deafening that I find I can't think for myself.
Layered in with all the fractures are people. Beloved, beautiful, made in God's image people. People who on one hand drive me crazy and on the other fill me with compassion. People who come with profoundly difficult stories, people who are angry, people who are rejoicing, and many, many who don't know how to show love.
I was walking by Boston's Harbor yesterday evening with a heavy heart, thinking about fractures and about people. There is a public art display that has just been put up around the Harborwalk. It features the sculptures of Michael Alfano - a gifted artist. All of the sculptures are extraordinary, but one in particular hit my soul. A dove on one side turns into a hawk on the other. In between are two outstretched hands. The inscription says this:
In Peace Offering, the dove conveys the hope for peace, while its tail transforms into a hawk, representing hostility. The dove's wings become open hands, which might be ours, in an asking, weighing, or offering pose. Or they might belong to a larger force that welcomes two people to dialogue.
Michael Alfano - Peace Offering on Harborwalk
The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true but few can put it into practice.
The Tao
I felt extraordinary peace as I saw this sculpture and read the description, for this is a piece that challenges me to keep my hands and my heart open - open to change, open to dialogue, open to listen, and above all - open to show love.
The battles and fractures in our hearts rarely take place in public. They take place in the dead of night, when noone is around to witness them. They take place in the early morning hours of begging for mercy. They take place in the wordless prayers of our souls.
I don't know what your wordless prayers are today. We can only know our own, and that is enough. What I do know is that I long to be a dove in a world that rewards hawks. I long to open my hands in a peace offering in a world that asks me to close them. I long to see God and people first, and the pain of my own fractures second.
I long for the day where the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the broken are made whole, and hearts no longer break from fractures. Until that day I hold to the comfort that comes through the author of all beauty and art and I offer up my hands to the One who knows best how to use them.
[Image by Carola68 Die Welt ist bunt…… from Pixabay.]
[Sculpture Photo Credit - Michael Alfano website photo by Adrien Sipos]
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