Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. He was an egg, and chose to sit on a high wall. Humpty, seriously, what were you thinking? Did someone try to talk him off the wall? Were restraints in order? Maybe Humpty wasn't thinking clearly about the repercussions of his actions. Clearly he was unstable, because he did, indeed have a great fall.
What was so great about it? He ended up shattered in a million pieces on the ground. His gooey yellow yolk pierced by the sharp shards of his splintered rough exterior. Laying there on the ground, he was broken, exposed, for all the world to see. All the kings horses, and all the kings men stood around perplexed. Humpty was broken. So very broken, and they had no clue how to fix him. I felt like one of those king's men today.
I work with special children every day. Some are more broken than others. Some days, I feel like one of the king's horses. I am watching with horror at the brokenness of this poor kid, and I have no idea how to fix him, or even comfort him. I'd like to hug him, but he's covered with prickly shell fragments and it hurts him for me to even touch him. I'd like to offer a gentle hand, but all I have is these clumsy hooves. I'd like to offer some words of encouragement, but I don't even speak EGG!
So what can I do? I do what I always do...Pray. I pray and wait for some glimmer of goodness that usually comes when my creator shows me a different way to see the situation. So here goes.
What if Humpty looked at himself in the mirror really hard one day, and realized that the best part of him was on the inside. A shell is a wonderful thing to keep yourself safe, but how many of us put the shells in our omelet? Eggs are for eating, and you can't make anything out of it without breaking the shell. We all have shells. We use them to protect the big yolkie part of us that we keep deep inside. There is a fragile part inside of each of us that can't be a blessing to the world until we break through our own calcium-rich cell walls, and allow ourselves to be broken.
Broken and shared. Jesus did it, too. He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples and said, "This is my body, given up for you..." And at the end of the meal he said, "Do this in memory of me..." Now he said a lot of things in between there, but if Jesus is willing to break himself into pieces (which he did) and share himself (which he still does) maybe he would like us to do the same. Just like Humpty, laying on the ground. Don't just stand and gawk, make me into an omelet! Maybe something fancy like Eggs Benedict. Or scramble me up and fry me and feed me to your soul. I don't want to just lay here with my yolk hanging out for nothing! Let me bless you with the stuff I have inside! Now that I'm broken, share me. Share me.
We're all called to be broken in one way or another. I've broken so much of me: my heart, my life, my relationships. Sometimes I can feel my own poky shell fragments still cluttered around me. Broken and shared. Maybe that's the lesson with my school kids. Maybe the point is that I'm not supposed to fix them. Maybe I'm just supposed to share with them. I need to show them how to love their yolks. I should be the mirror to show them that they ARE something wonderful, no matter what kind of shell they are in.
Being broken isn't just alright. It's necessary. I'm so glad my job teaches me that. I'm a bit of a wall-sitter myself. Have you ever heard a nursery rhyme about the egg that didn't sit on a wall?
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