How Our Broken Pieces Reveal the Beauty of the Savior

My family will attest to my love of trivia. If it is mundane and generally useless, but intriguing, I probably have it tucked down in the recesses of my brain. If you’re playing Trivial Pursuit, I’m your best friend. If you need anything done that is practical and helpful, unfortunately, I’m probably not your girl.

But sometimes, I’ll come across a bit of knowledge that attaches itself not only to my brain, but to my soul. A fact nugget God uses to remind me of His goodness and grace. You know the King loves a word picture. And most of the time those gems come in the most unexpected places. Like sitting in a required tutor-training session trying to soak up tips about teaching high schoolers Latin and Algebra and Literature. Before one session, my trainer was chatting with us, asking us questions, and somehow she got on the topic of pottery. And she began to tell the story of a ceramic art form called “kintsugi.” It was so fascinating, I didn’t hear anything else that was taught that day. As soon as I got home, I started researching. What I discovered was nothing short of remarkable and, unexpectedly, drove home a truth I’d been struggling with for years. Can God take my broken, mess of a life and make it something useful, even beautiful?

If you’ve been asking yourself that same question, come with me to learn what a centuries-old Japanese art form teaches about redemption. And how it points to a Redeemer.

In Japan, a unique art developed around the 15^th century. A shogun broke his favorite tea bowl and sent it to China for repairs. The tea bowl was sent back patched up with unsightly staples. This shogun talked to his artistic friends who set out to develop a more elegant way of repairing broken pottery. What developed was the remarkable ceramic work called “kintsugi.”

Kintsugi takes broken pieces of pottery and repairs them using a special silver- and gold-dusted lacquer. The practice creates unique pieces of pottery that use the fractures and fissures to tell a story. Instead of attempting to hide or cover the cracks and breaks, kintsugi seeks to focus on the brokenness of the pottery. Kintsugi allows the artist to create an original, useful, extraordinary piece from the shattered shards of what was once deemed unusable. What might’ve been swept out with the garbage is now sitting in a place of prominence, as a representation of the artist’s skill and the beauty of the creation, in museums around the world.

Hey sister, did that picture blow you away? Are you like me, have you asked God if your broken life could ever be used by Him? Have you felt like the shards of your life are meant only for the junk pile, or, even worse, the trash pile? Do you wonder how, or if, anyone can make something beautiful out of your pile of broken pieces? Do you wonder if this mess of your life can be used for anything good? Is there a purpose in the pain and the mistakes and the struggle?

Oh precious friend, let me whisper some truth in your ear. Let me tell you the Greatest Story again, or maybe for the first time. Let me remind you of the Gift. He walked the streets of Israel about 2,000 years ago, but He’s existed since before time began. In fact, He is existence itself. When He came and walked the earth, many people wondered who He was. This man was unique. He had a special purpose; a one-of-a-kind mission. A mission only He could fulfill. When His Father instructed him, He stood up on the Sabbath day in his hometown of Nazareth and announced His purpose. What was his mission? Let’s look at the expanded passage from Isaiah 61 he quoted on that Sabbath day, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning , the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit.”

This God. This Savior. This Gift. He specializes in taking broken people and not just putting them back together, but making them BRAND NEW. He doesn’t just fix our broken pieces, HE MAKES US BRAND NEW CREATIONS. But we’re still human, right? We’re still flesh and bone. But when Jesus makes you new, He fills in all those weaknesses, all those fissures and fractures of our humanness, with HIS SPIRIT. In that filling, He develops in us a genuine faith—more precious than GOLD (1 Peter 1:7). And when you allow Jesus to take all those broken pieces and make you new, you will indeed be more beautiful than your original self because you have been revitalized with new life. He makes ALL things NEW, and uses the broken pieces of your life to speak your unique story of redemption and renewal.

So if you’re wondering if He can use the tragedies and unwise choices and disasters of your life for His good. Trust me, He can. If you’ll let Him make you new, He will take the mess of your life and turn it into a message. He will turn a test into a testimony and a tragedy into a triumph. And with each piece that He restores and renews, you will even more beautifully reflect the love of Christ. So as you ponder the rare beauty of kintsugi, remember in Christ, God is working in you to make an incredible masterpiece, a new creation who reflects His glory with your own unique story of transformation.

For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us]. Ephesians 2:10 AMP