FRAGRANCE
OF THE BROKEN

Topics: Brokenness; Cross; Grace; Prayer

References: Romans 5:12–21; Ephesians 2:1–10

I had stacked some rocks out at this little place in the woods, a place I had gone to pray, desperate for God to do something, to show up, or to have some sort of breakthrough. As I was praying, I remember smelling cedar so strong it distracted me from my prayer.

I looked around to see this little cedar tree that had been snapped in half from my stepping in there. That was where the smell was coming from. It was a tangible sign of grace. I wrote down on a little notepad “the fragrance of the broken.”

—Steven Curtis Chapman in CCM (July 1999)