We were painting here, but I think this captures the chaos of a toddler.
I watched it happen in slow motion, but there was nothing I could do to stop my guitar from dropping out of my daughter’s hand and landing on the hard concrete floor. I heard the crack of the headstock breaking off, and I stood there staring at her. It probably isn’t hard for you to guess that the guitar was broken in ways that make it unplayable. My daughter Lucy is 3, and she is very into music of every kind, so she was doing her best to imitate her dad. How can I get mad at that? Unfortunately, guitars are breakable, and they could care less how adorable the toddler who drops them is. So, even though I went out and bought her a little guitar of her own to beat up after this, my guitar sits on the stand broken and unplayable. I don’t have the ability to fix it, so it remains broken. I walk by it all the time and shake my head.
Sometimes when I walk by this guitar I am reminded how much our lives are affected by brokenness. We have all, at one time, felt like this guitar. We all have brokenness in our lives, our relationships, or our families. Some of us, that brokenness puts us out of commission and set us on the stand like my guitar. We lack the ability to repair what is broken inside us so we live with it, and we often have no idea how to fix the brokenness in situations or relationships so we throw them out in exchange for a new one. It can feel overwhelming to face the harsh reality of broken marriages, broken relationships, broken families, broken dreams, and broken lives. But there is hope.
Sometimes something small can bring us to a big revelation. Let me give some context here. I am a mildly obsessive person, and my interests go in phases. Usually, I get really invested in an art form, work on it for a while, and then move to another. It isn’t a lack of commitment, but a desire for more artistic knowledge (also, I’m weird). Currently, I am really interested in pottery. As I was researching the other day I came across this specific art form that spoke to my heart and this situation: Kintsugi.
Roughly translated as “golden joinery,” Kintsugi is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with a special lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. The practice was birthed out of the philosophy of wabi-sabi, which focuses on seeing beauty in the flawed or imperfect. When a piece of pottery is broken the normal idea is to discard it because it has lost it’s value, especially if it cannot be repaired in a way to hide the broken pieces. Kintsugi is almost complete opposite idea. This art form uses precious metal to mend together something broken and makes it even more valuable and beautiful. By using gold or platinum to mend the broken vessel together, the artist actually makes it “better than new.”
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
- Psalm 147:3
This is what God does for you and I. We are broken. We have broken pieces. We have broken dreams, families, relationships, and lives. Yet, God does not throw us away. Instead, he takes all of our broken pieces in his hands and he uses something precious to mend us together and make us “better than new.” The gold that God uses is his love. When we bring our brokenness to God he doesn’t put us on the stand or toss our situation in the trash. He takes all of our broken pieces in his hands, and with the skill and care of a master craftsman, he creates something beautiful out of brokenness. Psalm 147:3 says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
I hope that you read these words and commit them to your heart: God loves you more than you could ever know and imagine. Maybe take a second to let that sink in. The creator of the whole universe sees you, knows you, and loves you. He has loved you from the beginning of time. He loves you right now. He has loved you in your brokenness, and it is his love that can mend together your brokenness and use it for beauty.
Here is the key: You have to bring all the pieces you have before him. He will repair it. He can make it “better than new,” but he needs the pieces. 1 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Jesus came to bring you life that you would live it to the fullest. He came to redeem what was broken so that we might be a testimony of the beautiful. God wants to heal brokenness no matter how big or small. Trust me, when you bring your brokenness before God he will take ever shattered piece in his hands, mend it together with his love, and what you thought were shattered pieces of your life will be a shining testimony of his love.
Bring your brokenness to him.
Receive his endless love.
Watch him turn your brokenness into beauty.
If you are facing brokenness in your life, then I encourage you to join me in praying a simple prayer today:
God, I come before you will all my brokenness. I praise you for the love that you have given to me. Take every broken part in my life and make it new by the power of your love. Take what was meant for brokenness and make it beautiful. I rejoice that the old has gone and the new has come. Amen
Blessings,
Pastor Josh Weisbrod