How many times can the heart be broken? Countless, countless times. How many times can it be healed? Well, if my record is any proof, I’d say every time. Some heartbreak takes longer to heal than others. Some leave everlasting scars. And always, heartbreak leaves change. Things are never the same as before that fateful event that broke you open.

Let me ask you this. If you take a beautiful plant and stick it in a dark room, all by itself, no light or food to nourish it…what will happen? That plant will wither and die. If you open the door the tiniest bit and give that plant the smallest amount of water, it’s going to do everything it can to grow but it will be just a sliver of what it could be. But, if you break that door wide open and let the sun and rain pour down on that seed, it will burst forth and grow with great force. Our hearts are like that. They have to be broken wide open in order for our souls to grow.

Sometimes during heartbreak, the pain is too much to bear and we try to stuff things in the cracks to keep our souls from pouring out on the floor. We eat, we shop, we drink and smoke, we jump into other relationships, we get angry and we harden the very thing that could set us free…our hearts. Forty-two years ago yesterday, a very nice couple tried to start a life together. They were happy and in love. They were young…so very young. They had a baby of their own. And hurts came, and the trials and tribulations of marriage were too much for them to bear, and they gave up. They were hurt and angry. They said things to each other designed to ensure the pain would stay alive forever. But, it’s funny, really. They went on with their lives. They married others. They became civil. Then something miraculous happened. They grew up…and they forgave each other for being young and being human. And they loved each other as you love a family member. And yesterday, forty-two years after they tied their hearts together, his heart was fixed during surgery and it goes on to beat another day. And hers can rest easier with that knowledge. Because…he was her first love, and now he is her friend.

❤

“7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”

1 Corinthians 13:7-8