Once upon a time there was a dashing toy soldier.  He remembers a time long ago, before he was taken out of his display box, when this shiny wind-up key could be turned and off he would march.  As he marched, pride and joy were displayed in his swinging arms and kicking legs.  But... that was long ago.  Now the once shiny key is broken off somewhere in his back and so he sits in a room full of other broken toys.  He searches high and low engaging with one toy and then another, always looking for that perfect other toy that can make him feel whole and complete once again.  There is a vague memory of his perfection which spurs him onward in his search.  Each time, with each different encounter, he becomes exuberant with what can be, what he is sure, will be.  Alas… it always ends the same; always deep hurt and disappointment that his dreams of becoming whole, feeling whole, could not be realized.  Sometimes, in his desperation, he even pretends to be something he is not.  He thinks that if he were a fireman or a policeman instead of a soldier, this new attempt at wholeness with yet another toy would end differently.  Even pretending to be something he isn’t doesn’t help. 

One day, his eyes desperately searching the room, he made a startling realization…. ALL of the toys in the room are broken!  His eyes widened with this new found discovery as he questioned, “How am I ever going to be complete through other toys that are just as broken as I am?”  He also made another startling discovery.  He realized that he was not discarded after all.  There was a tag of some sort hanging from his foot! Pondering this prior unnoticed tag, he suddenly felt something picking him up, lifting him high above his shelf.  He was being carried gently yet lovingly to a bench where some tinkering was going on.  He heard a loud “clink” as the broken piece of key fell from deep within his back and onto the floor.  There was a familiar shape being inserted in his back and a turning began.  He could feel this cranking stirring wonderful memories as his limbs suddenly began to move.  He was whole.  He was marching once again.  He was complete.  He was loved.

How many of us are guilty of searching for our wholeness and completion in a world full of others searching for the same thing?  We desperately do everything we can, pretending to be one thing and then another in an attempt to achieve wholeness through someone just as broken as we are.  How many of us realize all the ways we repeat the toy soldier’s search for someone or something to make us feel "all better", happy, and complete?

Whether we realize it or not, we each have a tag on our toe.  We each can be returned to wholeness, joy, and completion through the One Source that can "make it all better".  We each have the opportunity to turn to the One who can truly fix us, to turn to the One who can return us to feeling whole and complete.  Our Lord is waiting to pick us up, waiting to lift us high above the shelves of our every day existence, waiting to return us to the Love that is patiently waiting for us to turn and lift our arms. 

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