Imagine a beautiful ceramic vase that gets knocked off a table and shatters into a dozen pieces. If you want to fix it, you cannot pretend it only has a minor scratch. You have to gather all the broken, jagged pieces and admit that the vase is completely destroyed before the artisan can put it back together. In our active addiction, we spent years pretending we only had a few “scratches,” terrified to let anyone see that our lives were actually in pieces. But this verse shatters our fear of being broken. God does not pull away from our mess; He leans into it. Admitting that we are completely powerless over our destructive habits is not a shameful defeat. It is the very moment we finally gather the broken pieces and hand them over. Our crushed spirits do not disqualify us from His love; they are the exact conditions that invite the Artisan to get close and start the beautiful work of healing. | 
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