The Answer for a Broken Heart

I would ask the question if you or I have ever disobeyed our Heavenly Father, but this question would be futile for there is only one who has never disobeyed. I will put the question to you instead has there ever been a time in your life where you disobeyed and immediately there after was truly sorry? I read The Brothers’ Grimm stories and one of their stories inspired me to write the following. The name of the story is "Our Lady's Child" .

Once there lived a poor family of three; a husband, a wife, and their young daughter. This poor family had come to the point of poverty where it brought forth no food and therefore the husband and his wife were at loss on how they were going to feed their child. Being desperate, the husband went out into a forest to scrounge for food but found none; at a loss at what to do next a man suddenly stood before him whom the husband did not recognize. The man asked the husband, "Why do you have such a look of desperation about your face?" The husband replied, "I have no food for my daughter." The man said "Bring your daughter to me, and I will feed her." The husband was so relieved that he immediately ran for his home to fetch his daughter; on finding her, he picked her up and gently swung her around to his back.

Holding on tight to her and her to him, the father walked as fast as he possibly could toward the direction where he had left the man. On arriving at the meeting area, the father saw the man sitting on a stump quietly and patiently waiting for the father and his daughter. "Here is my daughter kind man." The man asked the father to bring the little girl to him and sit her on his knee; the father did so and stepped away. The kind man looked lovingly down on the little girl in his lap and asked, "Are you hungry young one?" "Yes kind sir, I am."

The man looked up to the father and said, "I will take her with me to a place where she will hunger no more." The father knew that he and his wife would die of starvation and in that knowledge he agreed. Upon the agreement, the man and young girl disappear and enter through the gates of Heaven for you see the man was Christ Himself; the young girl became a young woman and never new hunger again.

Christ came to the young woman and asked her to perform a task for Him; it was a simple task. Christ had to leave Heaven for a period and needed one to keep a key that opened a chest that had never been unlocked. Christ asked this of the young woman who humbly accepted the task. Before Christ handed the key to the young woman, He lovingly warned her not to open it; the young woman replied, "I understand." Christ left and the young women placed the about her neck; it hung there upon a gold chain next to the young girl’s heart. Each day Christ was gone, the young woman passed by the chest to ensure it safety and well being; upon seeing the chest, the young woman would reach up and wrap a hand around the key that never left her neck. Now, this chest was no ordinary chest; oh no, it was one of great beauty that befitted Heaven itself.

One day as the young woman was ensuring the safety of the chest her curiosity was piqued with wonder of its contents; surely a chest whose appearance befitted Heaven itself would hold contents of the same. Unable to overcome her curiosity, the young woman walked toward the chest slowly removing the key from around her neck and slid it into its lock gently turning it till the hook that had held the chest shut since the beginning of time let loose and now hung at angle. The young woman removed the lock and began to lift the lid of the chest; upon looking inside the young woman realized that not only was there nothing inside the chest, but she had disobeyed the Man who saved her from starvation, Christ. The young woman closed the lid and placed the lock once again as it was; upon turning around Christ was standing behind her looking at her with such a look of grief and sorrow that it broke the young woman’s heart; she began to cry and gently feel to her knees in shame. Christ reached down and placed a hand under her chin to lift her face toward His Own. As the young woman looked into the eyes of her Provider she saw forgiveness, and her heart began to mend.

All of us at one point and time have disobeyed our Heavenly Father but praise be to His name, He provided a Way where He can forgive us; without this Way forgiveness could never take place.