Broken Wings

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Frances J Harvey MCLC , One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.

I love gardening! Anyone who knows me knows that fact!

Flowers, plants, dirt, shovels, gloves… If I’m in the middle of it, I am a happy girl!  Better yet…if I am in the middle of it barefoot… YES, barefoot gardening!

I grew up with a mother and two grandmothers who loved to garden, and they were really good at it!  So as a little girl, I would sit outside with them and stick my feet in the dirt and “garden with mom or grandma”.  They taught me how to know the difference between a new plant breaking earth or “is it a weed?”  They taught me where to plant – should it be in the sun or shade or both?  They taught me how to cultivate the earth and get it ready for planting, then how to care for the plants and help it to bloom to the best of their ability. 

As I have grown older this love hasn’t changed, only to increase my passion of the nature God has created, and to continue to learn new things, get new ideas, and make it easier on the back as older I get.  One of those “new things” a few years back was a fairy garden.  OMG…fell in love with them.  So I was on a mission to find things for my fairy garden, including fairies!  I found some wonderful fairies on a trip to Oregon and brought a bunch home.  Soon I started planting my fairy garden and it was amazing…everything I love about gardening – but tiny!  HOW CUTE IS THAT?

One of the fairies I bought was in a sitting position so her legs dangled over the edge of what she sat on. She was beautiful with delicate facial features, long brown flowing hair with a head wreath of flowers, sparkles on her flowing carefree dress, and wings that were wider than the entire fairy herself!  She was beautiful, my favorite…let’s call her Angel!  You could tell that her creator cared about his work very much and every detail was purposely done.

She sat in the garden overlooking everything seemingly well pleased.  Sometime after the garden was done I began to realize “Hey, this is as much work as a regular garden.  If not MORE due to the fine tiny features and plants.”  I tried to keep up, but after a while – life got busy and my attention to the garden began to fade.   Soon it was dead!  :(  I know!

But…I brought my fairies into the house and set them in places I would see them daily because I love them so much.  My favorite one – Angel – I put in the bathroom on the shelf and each day as I would get ready for the day putting on makeup, and doing my hair, I would see her and enjoy how pretty she was and even remembering my fairy garden, hoping someday to get back to it.

But then it happened. 

One day she was knocked over and went crashing to the tile floor hard!  OMG ANGEL!!!! 

I picked her up and assessed the injuries.  Her arms were broken, part of her legs broke off – she had no feet, and her wings were broken off.   I KNOW!  I was devastated and so very sad.

I thought about throwing all the broken pieces and Angel in the trash as it just didn’t seem possible to fix her, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  She was still so pretty and her wings – although not attached – were in one piece and they still sparkled!

It’s been several years since she fell, yet she still sits in the bathroom on the shelf with her broken wings beside her.  Every day I look at her and still see her beauty. 

And then it hit me today…. THAT IS HOW GOD SEES ME! 

I have fallen, I have broken parts, yet He doesn’t give up on me or throw me in the trash.  Each day He sees me as beautiful, as His daughter, as His princess!  He sees me as righteous through the eyes of His Son.  He sees what He created me for, the purpose and plan He has for my life, and the work that is yet to be done.

He sees what I often cannot see.   

This is what Philippians 1:6 says….  There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.  The Message

How I am so grateful for the gift Jesus gave so I will not be thrown away even when I have Broken Wings!