Author Barbara Johnson, in her book, Fresh Elastic for Stretched Out Moms, tells about a package she once received that was marked DAMAGED IN TRANSIT, BUT DELIVERABLE. There was a space at the top that said either DELIVERABLE or UNDELIVERABLE, and a big black crayon marked this package as DELIVERABLE! The string was hanging off it, the label was torn off, and tapes were hanging out of one corner, but it was still deliverable.

Barbara Johnson says she thought of how many lives like her own are damaged and hurt. "We should be marked FRAGILE: HANDLE WITH CARE," she writes, "but we are like packages on a long and bumpy journey toward maturity. We have been crushed with the pain of losing a child, or the heartache of a child abandoning us, or rebelling against us and God, but instead of being …