Brokenness and restoration

This bridge may not mean anything to you, and I wish I could find my other picture of it when it did not look like this. This is one of the main bridges that crosses the Danube River in the city of Novi Sad, Serbia. When I first was in Novi Sad in 2002, three years after NATO bombed this country, the bridge was still in "two pieces", making a "V" shape in the river, destroyed by a NATO bomb. So, this past weekend, when I saw the bridge restored and cars zipping back and forth over it, my breath was taken away and tears welled up in my eyes! It took many years and there was tremendous suffering and inconvenience endured by the people as they had to find other ways to cross the river, but now the bridge has been restored...all the bridges have been restored and travel across this great river is "back to normal."

Serbia is a country which has endured centuries of turmoil, brokenness galore. The wounds run deep, but hope abounds as Jesus Christ is being lifted up and people's broken hearts are being met by God's amazing grace and love, which heals all broken bridges. The needs are great, though, because the physical can be restored so much more easily than the emotional and spiritual.