Blessed Broken Pot Put Back Again

kintugi image by Haragyato (CC Past-SA 4.0)

Update: Since publishing this post, it has go by far the almost viewed mail service on my blog. During Oct 2017, I decided to expand on information technology by taking function in Write 31 Days to create a series "31 Days of Kintsugi." For an index of all the posts in that serial, please click here.

"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are potent in the broken places."- Ernest Hemingway

I was interested this week to larn well-nigh the Japanese fine art of Kintsugi. The discussion translates as "gilded joinery" and it is a method of repairing broken ceramics with a lacquer mixed with gold, argent or platinum. The aim is non to hide the repairs, only to make them a feature- to incorporate them into a design oftentimes more beautiful than the original.

The philosophy behind it is to value the brokenness and repair as part of the object's history, rather than seeing information technology as something to disguise. In contrast to Western philosophy which strives for perfection and looks to hide brokenness, Kintsugi acknowledges the brokenness, then pieces it back together into something beautiful.

It strikes me that God is the master of Kintsugi.

He knows our brokenness, yet he doesn't reject u.s. or discard u.s.. Where nosotros see a heap of broken pieces, he sees potential and the possibility of creating something beautiful and new.

He doesn't want us to hibernate our brokenness. He wants to heal us in such a way that, while the cracks and scars are still visible, they are not something ugly or shameful. They are part of the dazzler.

God takes our broken pieces and puts them back together in a fashion that displays his glory, because information technology is in the cracks and in the scars that we encounter evidence of healing and God'south power to restore.

I recall of the wedding I played at, for a couple who had been married previously, to one another. In the fourth dimension since their divorce, each of them had separately come up to faith in Jesus and their broken human relationship had gradually been restored. Now they were remarrying- and there was something about the history of brokenness that made the restoration especially cute.

I call back of a friend who has a history of immense brokenness, including drug and alcohol addiction and time in prison. There will always exist scars, but I know few people who shine with the honey of Jesus as much as he does or who have such a want to reach out to others who are cleaved. The depth of the brokenness he has known just goes to show that the beloved of Jesus can achieve fifty-fifty deeper.

It doesn't hateful that every situation volition be restored here on earth. Some marriages don't mend, some people never break gratuitous from addiction, there are times when the loss remains and the healing never comes.

But fifty-fifty then, as Eric Liddell puts information technology: "God is non helpless amidst the ruins." Although it may be very different from the original, God can notwithstanding brand something beautiful.

When Jesus rose from the dead, his scars remained but, while they were a reminder of pain and suffering, they were too a reminder that evil does not accept the final word. They were a testimony to God's awesome ability. St Thomas Aquinas writes, "He kept His scars non from inability to heal them, just to habiliment them as an everlasting trophy of His victory."

And I call up at that place is a lot of truth in the statement that "afterwards many are strong in the broken places." The places where we have known brokenness and experienced God'due south healing are the places where we have empathy and compassion for others who are broken. They are the places where we have a story to tell and where we accept credibility to minister to others. They are the places where we tin can speak promise and shine lite into the darkness.

And so peradventure nosotros should learn from the art of Kintsugi. Maybe we should accept our brokenness and finish trying to hide it, but instead paw the pieces to God and see what he tin exercise and what beauty he can create in us.

I discovered the concept of Kintsugi in "Mosaic of Grace" by James Prescott, which will be released on 13th February. It is always a bit of a chance to agree to exist on a launch squad for a book when you know very little nigh the author or his writing. Notwithstanding, having read the outset few chapters, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book, which speaks powerfully 0f God's grace in the cleaved places of life. I'll be sharing more soon, only it is one to look out for.

kintsugi