I was cleaning out a closet recently in a room that serves as my office. This particular closet is home to a veritable “hodge podge” of items. There are bins with precious memorabilia of days gone by, some dress clothes and some clothes that I just can’t part with like my and my children’s 1st communion outfits. It is also home to things that just need a temporary home for one reason or another. One such thing was a large wicker basket full of breakables; breakables that I had forgotten were in there.

On this particular day, I went into this closet wanting to purge the unnecessary. In the process, I carelessly shifted things around disturbing the wicker basket which was precariously perched on top of an American Girl Doll locker from my daughter’s childhood. Without notice, the basket and all of its contents tumbled to the floor. With a gasp and a selfchastisement for my carelessness, I watched and heard the contents crack and shatter.

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I bent down to see what I had done and in that array of brokenness there was, in its mighty tenderness, a ceramic figure of Jesus’ hand holding a child of God in gentleness, peace, comfort and wholeness. To my great delight, it was not broken! In fact, it was untouched and perfect. This was not something that could be left unnoticed and unshared; it captured my full attention and made me pause to remember that no matter what is happening around me, around you, around us, God is holding each one of us in the palm of his loving and mighty hand-- always and everywhere.

What a beautiful comfort!

Justine Bojan