Broken in a million pieces

Happiness
Happiness is like a crystal
Fair and exquisite and clear
Broken in a million pieces
Shattered, scattered far and near.
Now and then along life’s pathway
Lo! some shining fragments fall,
But there are so many pieces
No one ever finds them all.

You may find a bit of beauty
Or an honest share of wealth
While another just beside you
Gathers honour, love or health.
Vain to choose to grasp unduly
Broken is the perfect ball
And there are so many pieces
No one ever finds them all.

Yet the wise as on they journey
Treasure every fragment clear

Fit them as they may together
Imagining the shattered sphere
Learning ever to be thankful
Though their share of it is small
For it has so many pieces
No one ever finds them all.
           – Priscilla Leonard

This poem was given to me by my Grade 8 Teacher – a lifeline through those difficult years.  At the time I painstakingly typed it on an old typewriter and hung it on my wall.  It remains on my bulletin board in my sewing room to this day.  It often comes to mind.

Today I may be broken in a million pieces, a shattered view of happiness.
Today I may not understand the plan the Lord has for my life
Today I may have difficulty seeing beyond my circumstances and my feelings

But the Word of God tells me in Nehemiah that the “joy of the Lord is my strength”.

I’ve learned in my journeys that this verse doesn’t mean I’m always happy, or content, or even remotely in control of my life.

I’ve learned that it means that if I will “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.”Mark 12:30
And
I will “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5

Then the joy of the Lord will reside within me.  This joy will give me strength to face the days I’m broken in a million pieces and as the poem above so poignantly reminds us, I will not “grasp unduly” but will be “learning to be ever thankful”.

Even when I’m broken in a million pieces I live in the sphere of One Hundred Thousand Blessings.