Beauty in the Brokeness
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ”
Have you ever broken glassware or dropped a dinner plate? Maybe a special figurine slipped from your hands and shattered on the floor? After you get over the shock of watching something smash on the floor, there is usually a moment when you try to fit the broken pieces together. We hope that the pieces are big and the break was clean enough that we can repair it with a little glue and careful placement. Often, we find that too much work and time would have to go into fixing it, or it would lose its function even if we did manage to fully repair it.
Through the onset of symptoms and the process of being diagnosed with chronic illness, it can feel like we have been shattered. I mean that literally and figuratively. While it oftentimes feels like our bodies are falling apart, our everyday lives also feel like they have been smashed into a thousand pieces. It is easy to feel hopeless when staring at the remnants of what we used to be.
I came across a social media post about a year ago (yes, that’s how long I procrastinated to write this blog post), about “Kintsugi,” a Japanese method of repairing broken ceramic pottery.
When a ceramic vessel is broken, lacquer and gold pigment are used to repair and place the vessel back together. The result is not only a functional ceramic, but a new, beautiful piece of art.
This practice has been around for over 500 years and comes from two philosophies - the first of embracing imperfections, and the second of accepting change as a fact of life. At one point in history, people actually began to break their pottery purposefully because they knew the reconstructed version was more unique and valuable.
I can’t help but think that this is such an amazing illustration of what God has done for me, and for us, with the pieces of us that have been broken by illness and other circumstances. I have watched and experienced Him not only putting me back together but also making me better than what I used to be. There’s no doubt that there is a conforming to His image that takes place when He carefully places bonds in the cracks. Because that’s who God is, right? Not only did He create us at the beginning of our lives in our mothers’ wombs, He knows precisely how to repair what breaks as a result of living in this fallen world.
As I write this, I am reminded of God’s promise in Isaiah 61:3 - to grant those who mourn “beauty for ashes.” In this Scripture, we find Isaiah admonishing his people to look forward and place their hope in God’s redemptive plan. Today, as recipients of the resulting grace and redemption of that promise, we can actively participate in God’s work of putting together our shattered pieces. Some people may not like to hear that until we leave this Earth, there will be more breaking, more mourning, and more enduring the process of being repaired. But if we allow the Artist to reconstruct us in His way, we will always come out more beautiful in the end.