Psalm 34:18 (NKJV) The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
It was providential that this verse was next on my list today. I experienced a great example of this verse just this week.
I spoke with a family who had given up their daughter for adoption about 7 years ago because of severe financial hardships. It was a truly a situation of a parent making a tremendous personal sacrifice so that her child could have a better life. I can’t even imagine how hard it would be to let loose of one of my small children, possibly never seeing them again but knowing it was an unselfish act of love for them. Broken hearted.
For the first few years the adoption organizations of their country would send a regular update about the child’s welfare. Then they stopped. When the mother inquired, she was told there is no information, do not try to find or contact your daughter. Crushed.
For three more years the mother and family grew increasingly sad about never seeing or hearing the daughter again. She told me that a few days ago she an intense dream about her child and she determined to beat on the doors of the officials again and try to get information. While she was doing this, a close friend of hers got on the Internet armed with a single clue, and through a series of blessed coincidences from God, came upon a Facebook page that she was sure was the adoptive family. She contacted that family via messaging and they responded “yes, you have the right family!”
The adopting family had lost all contact and information about their daughter’s biological family on the other side of the world. They had absolutely no way of knowing who or how to contact anyone. So all they could do was wait and hope their daughter’s biological family would someday find them online. It took many years but that day had come.
I’m reminded of this as a write today because the biological mother was genuinely broken-hearted at the thought of never hearing/seeing her daughter again. Even her own mother (the daughter’s biological grandmother) said she had only one wish before she died: to hear from the granddaughter one last time. God gave her that desire of her heart.
The love of the mother was so real, the sound of her daughter’s voice over the phone led her to collapse on the floor in uncontrollable tears of joy. God heals the broken hearted. When you have experienced this for real, it is unmistakable.
Think It Over: Often what we are broken-hearted about is trivial and selfish. That’s not what this verse is about. The Lord is near to those who love Him, are humble, who acknowledge Him as Lord, and whose hearts are broken. While this verse is primarily speaking about salvation, it certainly has application to those events in our life that crush us and break our heart. And one last note: while the Internet and social media has many ill effects and much of it is a moral sewer, thank God for technology that can bring loved ones together no matter how far apart on this planet.