This morning I am grateful for an image posted on my Facebook page by Rachael Wainwright. It shows an ordinary coffee mug that has probably been dropped on the floor and lays smashed into pieces. The image beside it is the mug transformed into a fun plant pot.
There are times in our lives, or in the lives of others we meet, when we think we or they are beyond repair. Times when we have messed up so bad there is no way out. Or, perhaps, we have been hurt by others, leaving us feeling broken into pieces.
The Japanese have made this into an art form, known as Kintsugi – which means golden joinery. A broken pot is repaired by joining the cracks with gold or silver lacquer. The idea is not to hide the repairs, but to make them a feature and so create a pot that is more beautiful than before.
The brokenness is valued rather than hidden, and the repair is seen very much as part of the pot’s history.
God is the master of the art of Kintsugi. He does not reject or throw away broken “pots”. He sees, in the heap of broken pieces, new potential and possibilities. He heals us in a way that the cracks and scars may still be visible, but they are not seen as ugly or shameful, but as a way to something much more valuable and beautiful. Those cracks and scars illustrate God’s healing and power to restore.
God mends what is broken and makes it beautiful again.
Prayer: Gracious Father, in our brokenness create a new person. Heal our cracks, tend our wounds and may the scars that we see show your glory, and may we see the beauty you have created. AMEN