| The Lord is close to the brokenhearted … |
| —from Psalm 34:18 |
I once felt crushed in my spirit at a very early age. Please let me explain.
I was only seven years old at the time. I had spent a week on the shore of Lake Erie, near Silver Creek, New York. We had rented a cottage from a friend of my father’s. It was a fun time and one that opened an entire new chapter in my life.
In the rented cottage right next door, the one that actually had frontage on the Lake, lived a mother, a father, and the most beautiful little seven-year-old girl I had ever seen. I was very surprised to learn that this family also had their primary residence in my hometown of Bradford, Pennsylvania. While I lived on the north side of the city and attended the Sixth Ward Elementary School, this delightful little girl lived on the west side of the city and attended the Hobson Place Elementary School. Until meeting at the Lake, our paths had never crossed in our relatively small city of 18,000 people.
We had a delightful time at the Lake that week. And, for the first time in my young life, I became utterly fascinated with this magnificent girl. Her name was Vicki. Even after more than 71 years, I can still remember exactly what she looked like: the sun reflecting off the Lake and illuminating her beautiful pale skin.
I came home from that week at the Lake and felt lost—absolutely lost. For days I moped around the house. My mom tried to assure me that Vicki was just one of many delightful young ladies I would meet in the course of my life. But, that didn’t relieve the sense of loss that I felt. I was truly crushed in my spirit.
As I write these words, I can’t help but chuckle at my own childish foolishness. The setting that summer at the Lake was a truly unique experience. In no other setting would I ever have had the opportunity to meet and to get to know this little girl. She and I came from totally different worlds. I later learned that her family was well off financially, had a lovely up-scale home, had really nice clothing, and had a country club membership, while I came from a relatively poor family. She spent her time in various activities that included riding horses, water skiing, and learning to play golf. I spent my leisure time at church and reading books about electronics and radio stations.
I never had the opportunity to connect with her again. By the time I reached Junior High School, where all the Elementary Schools funneled into a single building, her family had moved to another city. Then I later learned, they moved back for a short time and, all too soon, moved away again. But, from all accounts that I heard, by that time she had transformed into someone that seemed quite unlike that delightful little girl I had met many years ago. I am absolutely certain that, very soon after we first met, she had no memory of me whatsoever.
When it comes to feeling crushed in one’s spirit, many of you could tell a much more realistic and much sadder tale of some very serious event in your life that caused a deep hurt in your very soul. My illustration seems quite trivial in comparison. It sticks in my mind only because it was the first time I had experienced such helpless feelings. Of course, in the many years since those long-ago days, I have had some genuine tragedies that have plunged me into an ever-deeper sense of spirit-crunching despair.
Fortunately, King David shares these comforting words from Psalm 34:18:
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
When we experience a genuine time of hurt and disappointment in our lives, God stands ready to reach down with His arms of love and give us a holy hug. He knows what it is to experience loss. After all, He gave up His one and only Son, Jesus, to become the One who paid the penalty for our sins, dying on the cruel Roman cross of torture. As Jesus took on the sins of all humankind, in His holiness and for a brief moment in time, God had to turn His back on His only Son.
Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story. But, as we begin this new day, whenever we wonder if anyone can relate to what we may be experiencing in our lives, we can rest assured that God can. He understands. He will comfort us and He will heal our broken hearts.
