“Kintsukuroi” – Golden Repair 

IMG_0810 (1)

This Japanese technique takes something broken and not only repairs it, but places value in the brokenness by mending with gold. The philosophy behind this art is to acknowledge that breakage and repair form part of the history of the object.

I’m not sure there could be any other art form that so closely imitates the love of God in our life and I love what it represents for us.

I’ve known brokenness, what it feels like to be beyond repair. I’ve felt the shame of the scars I carry – wounds both physical and mental that threaten to stick around as constant memoirs of the battle ground of life. Years wasted believing that my value was diminished because of the paths I’d walked. I’ve lived under the condemning weight of others words as they’ve instilled judgement, condemnation and negative reports.

I used to think there was no way out, destined for a life of survival, just living to make it through one day to the next with my arms outstretched carrying the broken pieces of my life.

There’s only so long you can go on like this – and I tried it too many times!

I’m so thankful for the days when I’ve been completely broken, and laid all those pieces at the feet of Jesus (although sometimes it’s more like a crashing and dropping than an elegant laying down of all those pieces!). In those moments He so gently comes and pieces me back together…and somehow, more beautiful than before.

When we find ourselves broken He doesn’t cast us aside and render us useless, fit only for hiding in the dark corners of the basement never to be seen again or throwing out with the rubbish. Much like the art of Kintsukuroi, He doesn’t just stick us back together again with glue leaving an ugly trail highlighting the brokenness, He pours out His love and brings out beauty from the brokenness, placing value on the life that has been redeemed. To repair with gold is to instill more value into the object than it had before.

Through His work in our life we are able to come out the other side more victorious…
No longer bound by shame – but heads held high because of the value placed on our lives through His overwhelming goodness in lavishing His love into the most shattered places of our hearts – mending and healing, making us whole.

We can’t avoid the trials and challenges in life, but we can face them knowing that we won’t be broken beyond repair because there is One waiting to restore us every time, never allowing our value to decrease. He takes us through the process of “Golden Repair” filling the cracks with His gold, piecing us back together more beautiful than before.