The Morning Will Come: Finding Hope in SufferingSample

Beauty in the Broken

Kintsugi reminds us there is beauty in the broken. It is a Japanese art that repairs broken pottery with gold, rendering a new piece that is more exquisite than it was before the break. Kintsugi literally means to join with gold.

Rather than trying to hide the damage, Kintsugi highlights the repair. The imperfections are what make it beautiful and valuable. A broken piece that is put back together has more of a story, seems more authentic and real, and is stronger and more resilient than something that has stayed pristine. The breaking of what once was, the layered and time-consuming process of putting it back together, the mending it with gold, all contribute to its value. And surprisingly, it becomes more resilient after it has been mended by Kintsugi, even stronger than it was before.

God is the restorer, the Kintsugi Master who skillfully and tenderly puts the broken pieces of our lives back together. It takes time, but there is no broken piece God leaves untouched. I think of the gold resin as the work and power of God, who redeems what is broken in our lives.

After reading about this art, I decided to make my own Kintsugi vase since the authentic ones were very expensive. Besides, I wouldn’t mind breaking a dish for the cause. I found some do-it-yourself instructions on how to make faux Kintsugi online, particularly how to break it cleanly, and laughed as one man observed that deliberately breaking pottery just to put it back together defeated the real meaning behind Kintsugi. He wasn’t wrong but I forged ahead.

A friend came over and helped me with the process. Ironically, I wanted my bowl to look perfect and wasted hours trying to make it look clean and authentic. Kintsugi is about embracing and honoring flaws, but apparently, I like curated imperfections.

As I stared at the piece on my shelf, I mourned what was broken in my life. I was once an artist, expressing myself through graphic art, and now I needed help even with this relatively simple project because of the limits my body held.

Then I saw it. The way God was blessing my increasingly broken body. My writing came from a desire to express myself, which could no longer be through graphic art. I realized that God, the Master Artist, was putting my life back together with the gold of His presence and grace to show that the extraordinary power belongs to Him and not to me. He is doing a work in my life and yours that is beyond our understanding.

Our lives are in God’s hands, and He is using our brokenness to create something beautiful.

REFLECT: Where has your life been broken? How have you seen the Master Artist bless you and others through those gold-lined, once-broken places?