For many years now I have carried a nail with me during Lent. It is a model of a chiseled nail that would have been used to crucify Christ. Now I have no idea if this is really what the nail would have looked like, but to me it represents the pain I put Jesus through as he was nailed to the cross. I carry it as a sign to me these 40 days of the path we are all on, as we go with Jesus to the cross.
This morning I took a picture of the nail to place here as I spoke about it today in this devotion and here it is.
That is my nail. Well I went to worship at a conference meeting this morning with my nail and while at worship, the nail broke.
And now here is my broken nail.
I was sad that my nail broke. I had not carried it many years, but it had been something I looked forward to as a reminder of the journey. I was wondering where I had gotten the nail, and if I could get another nail. But as I sat in worship and held the broken nail in my hand, I realized that I was broken. I realized that this nail represented the pain I put through Jesus through and he took that from me and broke it. He is not held to the cross by the nail I hold in my hands. My sin may and did put him there, but it did not and can not hold him there. His grace is more powerful than any nail. He broke the power this world has over him and me. He called me to follow and cleansed me of all my wrongs and sinful ways.
My broken nail reminds me that even though I am broken, the Lord has claimed me, and he has broken the power of death. The power of this world that thought they put him in the grave. He has won the battle, and I no longer have to worry about being broken. I only have to worry about following him.
aSacredRebel 