I remember so well the beautifully hand made pottery bowl, filled with hot, homemade pasta Alfredo. My family was seated, waiting, at the table, for a favourite meal. As I turned the corner from the kitchen to the dining room, something out odd happened and the bowl left my hands, dropping quickly from my hands, to smash into dozens of pieces of pottery, dozens of pieces of pasta.
Our dining table surrounded by people whose eager and hungry hopes came crashing down to the floor.
To this day, I do not remember what we ended up eating for dinner that night.
I only remember feeling like a loser for dropping the bowl that we had received as a wedding gift.
At the time, I did not know of the Japanese art of using (usually) gold to repair broken pottery, called kintsugi (to patch with gold), otherwise I might have made a D.I.Y. attempt.
This art is borne out of an appreciation for the broken parts of a piece of pottery, and not only aims to mend it, but to feature the brokenness with the purity and preciousness of gold.
If only we could show such honour for broken people.
The difference in pottery and people is that all people have brokenness in their lives. We live in a broken world, alongside other broken people.
Our lives are infused with brokenness, with sin.
We all have dark areas of our lives. Areas where death, sin, hurt, betrayal, failure and disappointment have left indelible marks on our lives.
It is not that we should celebrate the broken in our lives, but, instead, acknowledge that we are where we are, who we are, as much (if not more) because of the brokenness in our lives. We have, in a sense, been refined by the potters fire, made solid (in our faith) by our experience of recovery from the brokenness in our lives.
“The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith as fire tests how genuine gold is. Your faith is more precious than gold, and by passing the test, it gives praise, glory, and honor to God. This will happen when Jesus Christ appears again.”
1 Peter 1:7
itsawonderfilledlife 