“Mrs. Givens, I can’t finish this puzzle. This piece is broken.”

My kindergarten student held a single puzzle piece out to me that was missing an edge.

“Wait!” said a friend. “Here’s the broken part.”

“So? It’s still broken. I can’t finish this one.”

“Yes, you can. They’re all broken up anyway. Just ah-tend (pretend) that this is two pieces instead of one.”

Wait. What?

I KNOW that was You, Lord. What a word, spoken from the lips of a little, pure child.

We are a broken people living in a broken world. Every day, those around us hurt for a multitude of reasons. Life throws darts at us that break us into pieces.

Maybe YOU are broken…reading this right now, thinking That’s me. That relationship, that physical problem, the stress, the defeat, the depression, the sin…it’s left you feeling like a pile of broken pieces.

Rahab was a broken woman. In the Old Testament book of Joshua we first see her as a woman of ill repute from Jericho. The first time she is mentioned in the Bible, she is referred to as “a prostitute whose name was Rahab” (Joshua 2:1). But Rahab looked through all of the broken pieces of her life and saw the only One who could put her back together again. She saw a Father who loved her enough to not only spare her life, but to use her in spite of her brokenness. Rahab was used to help the Israelites overtake the city of Jericho.

It comes as no surprise to me that God chose to use a woman like Rahab, in all of her broken glory. Her life was spared–and put back together–by a scarlet cord.

Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by…and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him.Joshua 2:18-19

Have you ever noticed what makes a puzzle distinctly a puzzle? When it’s all finished, and you are standing back to admire all the pieces put together, you still notice the faint lines of each piece. The lines weave and wrap their way through the entire big picture.

Without each piece, the puzzle will be incomplete. Even the “worst of the worst”…the pieces that are themselves broken by kindergarten fingers…are needed in order to fit the big picture.

Every broken piece of your life matters to the One who puts it all together. Even the ugly pieces, the ones you don’t want to remember. The broken, bent,and scratched ones. They are all important to your Maker. And the thread that holds it all together?

That’s the thread of Jesus.

It’s His blood, sometimes referred to the Scarlet Thread in the Bible. His blood takes even the dirtiest broken pieces of our life and makes them clean again.

Give Him your broken pieces today. Even the ones you wanted to throw away or sweep under the rug. He’s the Master Artist, and He’ll make a beautiful portrait of grace out of our broken, misjointed pieces.

Rahab’s bigger picture was more beautiful than she would’ve dared to imagine. In the New Testament, the “prostitute whose name was Rahab” (Joshua 2:1) is named in the very lineage of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

The Giver of the Scarlet Thread.

The Builder of broken pieces.

The One who is ready to take your broken pieces today. I can’t wait to see the masterpiece!