Broken Cookies

A dear friend recently gifted me with homemade cookies. I was assured they were made with love, and I could definitely taste the emotion in the treats!

At one point, I dropped the tin (there *may* have been a dog underfoot!) – and some of the cookies broke. While this was not a tragedy by any means, it was disappointing.

Now, we know that broken cookies are still entirely enjoyable – and I didn’t hesitate to enjoy them! – we also know that broken cookies are, well, broken. They have been damaged, and cannot be put back together. They are not the ones we serve to guests, they are not the ones that we would give to others, they are – crummy/crumby. Sometimes these breaks can be mended, and covered, but the fissures remain.

People are similar. We, individually and as communities, can be broken by the actions of others. And while we reconstruct and restore ourselves, we are never the same as we were before the break. We establish new ways of being, and new community, and new patterns of life; sometimes with the same people, sometimes with new folks altogether.

We are okay: a break does not mean the end of the journey. But it does mean the future pathways will look differently.

And so part of our call is to do our best to prevent the breaks from happening in the first place. In strengthening our bonds with each other, we establish networks of support that hold up and protect each other. And while part of reality is acknowledging that some people feel the need to break others apart, others will aim for means to prevent breaks in the first place.

Let’s be intentional about supporting wholeness – in ourselves, and in each other. It’s accepting invitations to difficult conversations, it’s in creating safe spaces where people can be authentic and vulnerable, it’s in rejecting bad behaviours that exist ‘because we’ve always done it that way’. It’s choosing to love, as God calls us to do.

So let’s love: knowing that we’re all going to drop, and be dropped, from time to time: but also always assured that like a broken cookie, we don’t lose our value.