Beauty in the Broken

The art of Kintsugi, first and foremost, acknowledges the history of the original piece of pottery that has been broken and visibly incorporates the repair into the new piece using precious liquid gold, instead of disguising it.

It aches sometimes. How will I ever help her reconcile with the reality of her family's broken story?

The only answer that ever comes is, "Maybe in the same way God has helped me reconcile with mine."

Maybe if we all dug deep enough we'd admit we are all broken. Beautifully broken. Our fault lines may be shaped differently. They may run in different directions. Mine -runs from the direction of who my father was. Is.

There are days when the earth around my heart shakes and I can feel the shifting, the cracking, the breaking and I wonder.... Actually, I wonder so many things, I don't even know where to begin.

How did his life ever come to this? Who is this man I call father? I knew him. At least part of him. But never fully. Not entirely. Honestly, probably hardly at all.

Maybe somehow I can help her understand the brokenness of her own family story by showing her through my own life that... it is into our brokenness that Christ pours His mercy. And because of that mercy, it is out of the those cracks, that an abundance of grace, compassion. love, and strength grows.

Maybe we can learn together that the grief of our truth is the open door to a resolve, a changed life, a different way that makes ways for others. Maybe the broken pieces of our lives are the fuel for an abundant life in the One who was broken for us and knows how to heal our pain, and wipe away our sorrow and take was was broken and make it whole again. Whole, for purposes beyond our wildest dreams. Purposes that bring healing, hope and renewal.

Sure, we could sit and stare at the shattered pieces of a life we thought we knew, or a life we believed we deserved, we can try to super glue them back together so no one sees or knows our past, our pain or the reasons that cause the fissures that are so evidently exposed.

Or...

Or we could pick up the pieces and hand them over to a loving God who knows all too well brokenness. Who knows how to take those shattered pieces and make something beautiful and new.

Beauty in the Flawed

Kintsugi is the art of broken pieces. The idea or philosophy behind this style of art is that of wabi-sabi; seeing beauty in the flawed. The art of Kintsugi, first and foremost, acknowledges the history of the original piece that has been broken and visibly incorporates the repair into the new piece using precious liquid gold, instead of disguising it. I'm not sure if there is any kind of art that is more profound and more personally and biblically applicable than this! More often that not, this artistic process produces a piece that is more breathtakingly beautiful than the original. The crack lines are visible. But it's their visibility that makes the piece beautiful. The brokenness of the vase is fused together with precious metal in order to enhance it's beauty and to be used for it's intended purpose; to hold life giving water that can be poured out again and again.

My hope and my prayer for both my own life and that of my child is that the fault lines in our life stories are not gaping chasms of emptiness, bitterness, rage or indifference. But that our lives visibly display the beauty of brokenness with precious fillers like love, grace, and mercy.

May our lives be used for their intended purpose of giving life and hope to others. And may God , above all else, be glorified.