What Can Mend Your Heart?
During a recent visit with a grief support group in Snow Hill, I shared a piece of art called “Mended Hearts.” This local artist designs broken wooden hearts, and each one has a unique symbol that holds it together now. In the example I brought to share, there was a key holding the heart together. Other pieces were held together with items such as bottle openers, a watch, and just about anything you can imagine.
I asked the group to consider what it would be that could signify their journey to putting the pieces of their hearts back together. What was it that helped their hearts to mend after loss? The answers were fascinating, and the discussions at each table surprised me and reminded me that we all have hearts that need mending. We might not share the same reasons, but we all share the need for healing our hearts and souls.
We have all lost something, haven’t we? Many have lost loved ones to this temporary life we share. Others have lost relationships that helped to define who they were in many ways. Many have lost the person we once were for a million different reasons. Still, many have lost the dreams we shared for others as they wander in search of their own unique mending methods.
One woman spoke about reusable hygiene kits that she had thrown herself into making when she needed her heart to heal. She told me how, at this point, she has made thousands that go to young women in South America. Now, she smiles when she makes them because the act of loving others helped her heart heal. Fabric with a purpose might symbolize holding her broken pieces together. One man said duct tape would hold his together because duct tape could hold anything together. He’s not wrong.
I looked around the room as these hearts, who had not all been together since the events of the past year or two, shared their love for Jesus Christ and each other as they realized… ALL of their hearts needed mending. God was in that room as I looked around at tears, laughter, and the hands reaching across the table to comfort one another.
There were the answers of a cross to hold their heart together with faith or an anchor because Jesus Christ had been their anchor. Then there was me… with a #2 pencil on the version of a mended heart that sits on my desk. Writing has healed and helped to grow my faith, as a result… my heart… multiple times over the past six years. What would be holding your pieces together?
Whatever it is, remember that each person you meet every single day that you live and breathe has a heart in pieces. Maybe not for the same reason as you, but painful and in need of mending just the same. Be kind. Love each other as Jesus Christ loves us. See the humanity in each other and be open to helping each other mend so that we can do the important work we have been called to do in this hurting world.
“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Corinthians 13:7
Kim R. Smith
Sound District Lay Leader