Broken Circles

Having been assigned the biohazard symbol to incorporate into a piece of wring, I was curious about its beginnings. According to Wikipedia, Dow Chemical came up with this symbol which is universally recognized, at least in the US, for caution regarding a dangerous substance.   

The symbol was chosen because it was “meaningless, but memorable ,” and Dow even ran some test studies to check out how memorable it actually was. The symbol apparently passed with flying colors.

My educational background dealt with music education, not science, medicine, or mining. Consequently, my first thought when seeing the biohazard symbol was unorthodox--I saw circles with pieces missing--broken circles.  That, in turn, led me to think of broken relationships, broken marriages, and broken families, either caused by death or selfishness.

As I look at what I think of as broken circles (the biohazard symbol), it seems to aptly represent our broken world. After all, we wouldn’t need this symbol if there were no harmful substances present in the first place.

At the beginning of time according to Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament, our world was perfect, unbroken, like heaven on earth. Then mankind decided to disobey God and their perfect world disappeared. Pain and death plagued mankind as well as the other creatures that covered the earth. St. Paul writes in the book of Romans that the creation (world) continues to groan for a healing of its brokenness.

The good news is our broken world now has the opportunity of healing the breaches made by sin/disobedience. When God the Father sent Jesus, God the Son, to earth as a baby who grew up to be a man, He culminated His work on planet earth by dying on a cross. Miraculously taking our sins on Himself  through His death, He did not stay dead! Three days later, Jesus was once again alive, through an awesome manifestation of God’s power. That was just the first step of hope for this broken world.

Forty days later Jesus’ disciples watched Him ascend into heaven, no doubt with their jaws dropping in amazement. The scripture says two men dressed in white suddenly appeared beside them and asked, “Why are you standing here looking up into the sky? Jesus, Who just left you, taken into heaven, will come back the same way.”

When Jesus, the King, returns, the broken earth will be healed. The Hope of the Ages will make all the broken circles complete. And we won’t need any more biohazard symbols.