Have you ever chipped a cup or cracked a plate? Maybe, like me, you’ve dropped a glass vase that has exploded into a million pieces. Some people will try to fix the broken object. Glue that cup’s ear back on or keep on using that dinner plate with the cracks in the hope that it is still good for a few more years. On the other hand, there are people like me who just throw it away. After all it’s only a plate or cup and it is not worth much anyway, well not the ones I have. With the vase there is of course no option. There’s no way that much broken can be put together again.
I’m sure that many of you are already ahead of me and know where I’m going with these analogies. Yes, we have all gotten little chips and cracks along life’s path. Some bigger than others. And yes, many people can relate to that vase falling on the hard cold concrete floor of life and exploding into a million pieces.
I like the analogy of God glueing our broken lives back together again like that cup. We all have those fine cracks creating a unique life that makes our life-journey different to the next person’s.
One of my favourite stories in the Bible is of the woman who for twelve years had a serious health problem and had spent all her money on doctors, but to no avail. Yet when she found Jesus, he did not throw her away, he made her whole again, like only he can do (Luke 8:43-48).
Of all the things that can chip and break it is our hearts that are most fragile and it is only God who can truly heal the brokenhearted and bind up our wounds (Psalm 147:3).
I recently read about the Japanese art of Kintsugi. I thought, “Wow, this is amazing and a really great analogy”. Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery with precious and expensive metals of gold, silver, or platinum. Rather than trying to hide the cracks or imperfections, Kintsugi highlights them, making the object even more beautiful and costly by emphasizing its history and the marks of its journey.
Kintsugi can take an ordinary, cheap vase that is cracked and restore it with costly gold and afterwards you have a beautiful, unique and more costly vase. In fact, even better than the original. This really got me thinking about God restoring our lives. Not only is it restored, but it is even more beautiful and precious than before it was broken.
Not only is God the only one who can fully restore us, but he also promises to do so. “For I will restore health to you and your wounds I will heal” (Jeremiah 30:17).
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
“He restores my soul” (Palm 23:3).
Many of us know the nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty. The egg who sat on a wall and had a great fall and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put him together again. There are many people who feel like Humpty and maybe we their friends feel like the king’s men. As much as we try there are still cracks or missing pieces. It is only Jesus’ loving touch or the embrace of the Comforter (Holy Spirit) that can put them together again. Sometimes it happens quickly, but most of the time it is a slow process with God loving and gently working daily in our lives. Picking up the pieces and glueing them together with the precious blood of Jesus. Filling the cracks with the pure priceless gold of his forgiveness and grace, especially that large gap created by that missing piece. Then a final layer of his everlasting love is applied like lacquer and the Eternal Artist steps back and loving admires his masterpiece.