cracked and broken... extravagant grace in common clay



If you do an online search of Kintsugi you will find a definition much like this - "golden joinery" the Japanese art of repairing (mending) broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum. I was reminded of this ancient artform the other day. When I first heard of Kintsugi my mind resonated with a rightness. It was like a tuning rod to my soul. To take something broken and in pieces and artfully put it back together using golden ribbons of lacquer that literally shines with shimmering veins of precious gold which bonds and holds the vessel whole again. It elevates the value and unique beauty of the object. The philosophy of this art of repair is to celebrate the history of brokenness rather than disguising it, or worse yet tossing the broken bits in the garbage bin. My personal philosophy is to celebrate the One who repairs the brokenness.The One that does the ultimate mending. 


One of my absolute favorite facets of God is the way He Redeems. He makes beauty from ashes. He restores and transforms. He makes things new. All through the Bible there are names of God given at specific times and by specific people. These names are given as He displays them to be true. I think the reason Redeemer is so near and dear to my heart is because I have personally experienced His redemptive power in my life. I won't get into the details here and now but when I was a child I had a profound break in my spirit. God found me and sang a song of redemption that knit me back together with ancient and holy words. He put me back together again in a way that, "all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty together again."


That experience along with many others layered cumulatively over the years has anchored my soul to Him. It helps to right me when I'm knocked off the occasional tall walls. In a disposable society broken things are often thrown out. Tragically true for Humpty Dumpty in that weird little nursery rhyme. I guess that story helps to drive home, even to the youngest of us, this idea that brokenness is absolute. New things are readily available and easy to obtain. We will likely repair large ticket items like appliances and vehicles and our homes but common things like a broken dish will just get tossed out. And sometimes we might even feel like a common not so special dish that has a multitude of cracks and broken pieces barely held together. We might feel our usefulness has been sidelined. 


The Bible has many metaphors for clay and earthen vessels - that's us, and God - He's the Potter. He is the One to form, shape and fire the clay to become useful vessels. He gets to decide how that vessel is used and, we, the jars of clay, are His to use as He deems. Of course, that is for those who follow God and live according to His Word by The Holy Spirit because of Christ Jesus' sacrifice and saving grace. We live holding His saving grace within our jars of clay to display His light and beauty to this world. It so fits with this Japanese artform of Kintsugi. This idea of a craftsman taking broken shards of pottery and rejoining it with golden threads of luminescent glory to mend and make whole again sings a familiar song to my soul. The pottery is transformed from how it was before the break - smooth and unbroken - to displaying a roadmap of stunning surrender after the repair. Because in order to be repaired one must relinquish the pieces/parts to the artisan and trust the process of rejoining and reforming - redeeming that which was meant for the garbage bin. 



I am finding the need to surrender to Him as my recovery is slow and I want to be whole again; seamless and strong. I want to rejoin life with gusto and stop feeling like my usefulness has been sidelined. I am a bit cracked and in need of some golden joinery. I am surrendering to Him. You might be feeling a bit cracked or broken. And if you aren't feeling cracked or broken perhaps you are seeing it in a more pronounced way in the world right now. I don't believe we will find all our broken bits rejoined by a politician or political party or a doctor or a cure to a virus but we can find wholeness and a beautiful mending when we surrender our hearts and lives to the Redeemer. He who has formed us and has allowed fires of calamity to alert us to the fact that this place is not our home. He will put you and me back together again, and again, and again... This extravagant grace displayed in common clay.






Comments

Carol Peterson said…
Beautiful analogy and excellent reminder that He is the potter! We are the clay!
July 22, 2020 at 2:41 PM
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