Move Over Monday: The Broken Cracker

The Broken Cracker

Our smallest was crying in her car seat. Hearing that my offer of a cheese cracker seemed to settle her fears of starvation, I dug to the bottom of our snack sack and found the last package of peanut butter and cheese crackers, ripped open the wrapper, and tried to dislocated my shoulder by reaching directly behind my seat to complete the offer. The screamer refused my suggested peace offering muttering the words “it’s broken” between her manufactured sniffles. I knew trying to explain the fact that the cracker still maintained most of its value despite the flaw wasn’t going to be eagerly accepted. So as to not wake the snoozing sister, I quickly handed her the next cracker in the package after a complete inspection making sure it was perfect, complete, and whole. Enjoying the moment of silence, I muttered to myself, “just because it isn’t perfect doesn’t mean it has lost its value”.

Jesus thinks the same about us. Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesian church and reminded them that they were “dead in their transgressions and sins” – their imperfections. Our sin keeps us from being perfect. But, if you keep reading, you see that Paul brings a message of hope to a bunch of imperfect people. He says that “because of his great love for us (yep, the ones with the corners broken off- that’s us) and his deep mercy, [God] made us alive in Christ even when we were already dead in our sins.” Knowing his readers need repetition, Paul reiterates the phrase, “for it is by his grace you have been saved” a number of times. We need to hear that too.

Sometimes we just need to be reminded that our imperfections don’t cause us to loose our value in God’s eyes. He sees beyond the broken corner and still deems us the perfect choice for his purposes.