February 2025 Devotional: Pieces
By Captain Isabella Green
Wrangell, AK Corps – Alaska Division
Based on the song “Pieces” by Steffany Gretzinger
The summer I turned 18, I started dating a guy I was convinced would be the one. He was a Christian, he loved children and wanted a family, our life goals lined up, and we shared the same calling. He on paper, was everything I was looking for.
But the summer ended, and our relationship turned into a long-distance one. I would write him letters every day. Pouring my heart into them. Drawing little pictures and sharing all that I had going on. I never got letters back. I would call him often, eager to hear his voice and share about my day. I would wait in my room, counting the phone rings as I waited for him to answer. I left a lot of voicemails sitting in that room.
As the months passed, I heard from him less and less. The phone calls that did get answered became shorter and shorter, and the texts less and less. Finally, around Christmas time we were reunited. My family drove 6 hours in Alaskan winter to meet him, spending a weekend near where he was staying so that we could have time together.
I was so eager, so excited to see him. And when we met up, my heart soared. The months of hurt and being ignored got tucked away and ignored. He was here, and everything was going to be okay.
But I would grab his hand, and he would let mine go. I would wrap my arm through his, and he pulled away. I would smile at him, and he would look down. The pieces of my heart crumbled a little more each time.
The weekend ended, and we went our separate ways again. I did not hear anything from him the day I left. Nor the day after, nor the day after that. A week later, his name lit up my phone screen as he called me. The call was short, and simply informed me that he felt he had been leading me on for months now, that his feelings were no longer there, and that it would be best if we broke it off. His name never showed up on my phone again, and the pieces he left me in were scattered on the floor.
He left me in pieces, after only ever offering me pieces of himself. Pieces of his attention, pieces of his affection, pieces of his care. Just enough to string me on, to keep me looking for more, but never enough to truly make me feel loved.
It was in the season of picking up my pieces, that I learned Gods love never comes in pieces. As I stumbled into the goodness of God, heartbroken and hopes for the future shattered, I found myself enveloped in a love so strong and so deep, that it covered me in totality.
God picked up the pieces and put me back together again. Patching me up in a beautiful new design. Still me, but stronger. Still me, but with an understanding of what it truly means to be loved.
God loves in totality. He loves unconditionally. He loves without care of if others have deemed you unlovable.
Romans 5:8 tells us that, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
His love for us is so deep, so true, that before we even knew Him, He died for us. Before we could ever choose Him, He chose us. When humanity was separated from Him, He sent His son to destroy the divide. And in His death the divide was shattered, left in pieces, allowing us to be truly whole in Him.
God does not love in pieces. He does not give us only part of himself. He gives us His all. He loves in totality and pours into us from a cup that never runs empty. His love is true, pure, and unconditional. It is given, without care of if we are worthy of it or not. It is there for us in the darkest valleys of our lives. And it is there for us when everything is going right.
God’s love for us is always there, even when we are not seeking it out. And at just the right moment, it will come crashing down in a mighty wave, overwhelming and washing out everything else. Every sense of doubt, of anger, of hurt, gone in the great wave that is His love. In His fullness, He will sweep the pieces up, and patch them back together again. Stitched up by His love and left new, ever more beautiful than before.
His fully given, unrestrained, and unconditional love, will leave us overflowing with a love so pure and true, that we simply must share it. His love is never given in pieces and will never leave us in pieces.