Life is a hot mess. There's the bedlam of getting out the door in the morning. The constant breaking down of our homes and bodies and the cars we drive. And the institutions that promise to help are often no better. We are surrounded by the constant disorder of governments and disappointed by "organized" religion, the very entities that tell us they can provide us sanity and security. Instead, they leave us scratching our heads or licking our wounds. Chaos surrounds us, and at times, it seems to rule our souls, our families, and our world. But does chaos always end in failure or flaw? What if chaos was more than the check engine light of lost causes? What if chaos was the raw material out of which God creates? In the beginning God brought order from chaos, filling the chaos with a beautiful creation, and he's been doing it ever since. Where you and I may experience confusion and disorder, God sees an opportunity for something new--for a rebirth, a renewal, and a renovation. God did this in the beginning, he did it again at the cross, and with renewed vision for our disordered world today, we look to God to do it again. Inspired by the powerful picture of creation in Genesis 1:2, author Jessica LaGrone challenges the hope-destroying belief that God has abandoned us in our broken relationships, our pain, and our grief. In the midst of our out-of-control lives, God is there, and he specializes in making new things from the chaos threatens to drown us. When we experience chaos in our own lives and everything feels like it is falling apart, God is just getting started. When the Spirit of God hovers, chaos can give birth to hope.

A little nod to those of us who are still feeling slightly half-baked: those with struggling families, cracked relationships, and a world that s showing a little wear around the seams. When God wants to create the remarkable, He chooses to work with the less-than-perfect. Genesis is a book of beginnings. It is deeply concerned with the origins of things of the universe, of humankind, of relationships, of sin, of civilization, of families, and of one special family created and chosen by God to be the instrument through which He would bless the world. That family is our family, yours and mine. Like all good family stories, it starts with not just a something or somewhere, but a someone. Part memoir, part biblical inspiration story, "Broken and Blessed" is about how change begins when one person decides to believe God s promises and how that makes a change in a family, like ripples on water."