When Life Shatters: Trusting That God’s Hands Hold Every Broken Piece

This past weekend, I attended a women’s Christian conference, and in the midst of a powerful message, one sentence gripped my heart: Nothing that happens doesn’t get sifted through God’s hands first. It was one of those statements that settled into my soul like a weight, one of those truths that you hear and immediately wrestle with because, deep down, you know it changes everything. My whole perspective changed on so many hurts that I didn’t realize I had been holding onto.

At first, this can be hard to grasp, especially for those of us who have walked through deep tragedy. How can we believe that a sovereign, loving God allowed us to endure the unthinkable? Or maybe you’re like me, and just have trouble understanding the WHY this had to happen for His good? How do we reconcile the belief that God is good when we’ve experienced unbearable loss?

I’ve faced the kind of loss that shakes the foundation of your faith. My son’s father took his own life when my little boy was just two years old. I’ll never forget the blood, the trauma, the way everything changed so fast and altered who I was, entirely. A few years later, I gave birth to my daughter, only to watch her fight for her life, and at 6 months old, she went to be with Jesus. The grief was suffocating, the kind that brings you to your knees and makes you question everything you thought you knew about God’s plan.

For a long time, I wrestled with the ‘why.’ Why did God allow this? Why did He let my son grow up without his father? Why did He give me a daughter only to take her back so soon? These were not just passing thoughts, they were agonizing cries from a shattered heart.

And let me be real-I couldn’t get myself to believe in God because of how I felt. It felt like He had turned His back, like I was screaming into the void, begging for answers and getting more BS in return. But over time, as I pressed into Him, so many years later, I began to recognize His sovereignty even in the suffering. That doesn’t mean I got all the answers, but I started to see His presence in the pain. That’s when I began to truly understand what sovereignty means. God’s sovereignty isn’t just about Him being in control- it’s about Him being in control with a purpose, with wisdom, and most importantly, with love. He is not a distant ruler making arbitrary decisions; He is a loving Father who weaves even the darkest moments into a plan beyond what we can comprehend. He is involved.

The sovereignty of God means that nothing happens outside of His knowledge or His divine will. It means that He allows things, not to break us, but to bring us closer to Him, to shape us, and ultimately to glorify Him in ways we may not understand this side of eternity. It is the assurance that even in our worst pain, He is still holding all things together.

And in His sovereignty, we see the love of Jesus. Because God did not just allow suffering, He endured it Himself. He sent Jesus, His own Son, to walk through human pain, to grieve, to be rejected, to suffer, and to die for us. Jesus is the very proof that God is not distant in our suffering but present, compassionate, and full of mercy. His love meets us in our lowest moments, offering comfort, healing, and the promise that one day, all will be made right.

To say that God allows suffering can sound harsh, but when we understand that nothing, not pain, not loss, not grief, escapes His knowledge or permission, we also understand that nothing is wasted. If it touches our lives, it has first passed through His hands, and while we may never understand the full reason, we can trust that He sees beyond what we can see. He is not absent. He is not indifferent. He is working, even in the pain, to refine us, to draw us near, to shape a testimony that speaks of His goodness despite the darkness.

Faith is trusting that even when we cannot see the purpose, we can still believe in the promise- that He is for us, that He weeps with us, and that in the end, He will redeem every tear.

If you’re in a season where it’s hard to see His hand, know this: He has not abandoned you. What you’re walking through has been sifted through His hands first, and though the pain is real, so is His plan. Hold onto that truth, even when it’s hard to see. One day, clarity will come. One day, healing will come. And through it all, He remains sovereign, and His love never fails.