Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a word about Christmas toys.
Okay, do you happen to remember when Zorro became popular? It was a television series produced by Walt Disney, I think, introduced back in 1957. I was eight years old at the time, and I loved watching Zorro and his sidekick, Bernardo, who could not speak. I don’t know if the drama was set in Spain or in Mexico, but what really drew me to Zorro was his horse. It was a big black stallion named Tornado. When that horse would gallop in the night, and Zorro’s black cape would whip in the wind; I was in love. Oh, not with the guy … with the horse.
Well, that Christmas my parents gave me a box with a picture of Zorro and Tornado on the front. Inside was a big plastic replica of the black horse, rearing up on his hind legs. It had a little leather saddle and a plastic doll with, of course, the black cape tied to his neck. Oh, the adventures I had up in my bedroom with that doll and that plastic horse. I imagined myself riding beside this dramatic duo, and (I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this), but I would even whinny like a horse whenever I galloped them across my bed, up into a canyon of pillows, and then, a spectacular leap off the headboard and onto the flat, dry, desert plain of the hardwood floor. I played with it so much that one day, as my plastic horse leaped off the bed, it … broke its leg! I was devastated. When I showed it to Daddy, he explained that the plastic had shattered—there was no clean break—and so he would not be able to glue the leg back on very well.
I could not bring myself to part with this beautiful plastic horse, and so I kept him in a drawer of t-shirts where he could be safe, comfortable and maybe recuperate. After many weeks, though, he finally got shoved to the back of the drawer and I forgot all about him. It was well into spring when I discovered him way in the back of the drawer, forgotten, forlorn. I picked him up and I whispered in his ear that I was so very sorry about his injury. And then, unceremoniously, I dumped him in the trash can. After that, I pretty much lost interest in Zorro, but I always felt badly for his horse.
You know, when nice things get broken—when treasured or valued things shatter and become useless, it always touches a chord in our hearts, doesn’t it? You learn early on how to hold things lightly, for we live in a very broken world where many things are destroyed. But seeing that we are coming up close to Christmas, I wanted to share this childhood memory for a special reason. It sets up a poem that, I think, will touch your heart too, and it goes like this:
“As children bring their broken toys, with tears, for us to mend, I brought my broken dreams to God, because He is my Friend. But then, instead of leaving Him in peace to work alone, I hung around and tried to help, with ways that were my own. At last, I snatched them back again and cried, ‘How can You be so slow?’ ‘My child,’ He said, ‘What could I do? You never did let go!’
Broken toys may end up in the trash, but not broken people or their broken bodies or hearts. God is in the business of miraculous restoration, of making all things new. Exodus chapter 15 calls him the Healer, so I pray that today, if you are experiencing brokenness, don’t give up hope. Christians have all the hope in the world because God never abandons the work of His hands. Hey, friend, if you were blessed by this little story and the poem, you can always share it with your Facebook friends. Just go to my radio page at joniandfriends.org and, while you’re there, take a look at the video Christmas message I just posted. It’s all there for you at joniandfriends.org.
© Joni and Friends, 2013
Compliments of Joni and Friends
PO Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376
www.joniandfriends.org