Crackled But Not Shattered

Sometimes rocks come flying out of nowhere and leave you all dinged up.  What happened physically this evening to our sliding glass door is a lot like I feel on my insides.

Brad was just finishing mowing.  Took one more pass around the patio to clean up the scattered grass clippings and wham-o!!  Two rocks that were totally unseen came shooting out from under the mower, hit two spots on the slider, and the crazy crackling began.  The crackling, which sounds like rain on a tin roof, went on for about two hours.  Actually a peaceful sound, but left behind a mess of a door. 

This happened to us 4 years and 23 days ago.  Same door.  We looked up our invoice for the repair to remember who came to fix it.  The ouch to our finances is significant.  Doggone it.  Talk about crummy timing.

While we were waiting for the replacement glass last time, people actually thought it was pretty when they saw it.  Even the glass man said that people pay a lot of money to have that type of glass installed.  Too each his own, right?!

I've had some dings like this to my insides recently.  Something comes flying out of nowhere, totally unseen, hits sharply, and the crackling begins.  My "rocks" have been in the form of dishonesty and criticism.  Totally unexpected, from sources you should not have to brace yourself from.  But people are just plain imperfect, no way around that.  And my imperfection I'm sure has thrown my share of rocks in some way or another.  Friends will disappoint us, even cause hurt from time to time.  It confuses me, perplexes me, hurts me, and angers me. 

But I know a great Glass Man.  Only He can reglaze my heart with a new pane of tempered glass.  Glass that may crackle, but doesn't shatter.  Sometimes... most times... okay, every time, I wish He would just deflect the rocks and not let them strike.  I'm sure He deflects more than I'll ever know.  And I do know that I learn so much about His grace and restoration every time. 

So even though this is crummy timing (is it ever good timing??), I know that it is such a great reminder to me that things may crackle us, but they do not have to shatter us.