Broken People, Everywhere

As I sat in church today, I looked around at the growing congregation, and realized that the congregation was not growing with "perfect" people or even people who have their lives together. Most of the people there are pretty broken people-- the lady who just lost her job, the single mother with two preschool age kids whose husband left them when the little one was a baby. The girl who is younger than me and has a 2 1/2 year old daughter, but even still, she attended church since she was a young teenage. I found grace for her this week because her parents split when she was young, and she is still looking for a Father's love. But she worshipped God beautifully today, and I see her heart is changing. Then there is the lady whose ex-husband is in jail, and her two teenage sons have aspergers, she struggles to maintain some control of them. We can point our fingers and say "Wow, they screwed up" and we can say things like "God hates divorce" but we are all still broken people. The entire church is made up of broken people, little fragile lives offered to God, to the King of the Universe. We come to church every Sunday saying "Here is my broken little life, patch it up, Lord, so that I can share your mercy to those around me." And that is what the church is supposed to look like.