Beautiful scars

Have you had that experience of dropping something very fragile, and watching it fall in slow motion to the hard floor?  You can see it happening, but your hands aren’t quick enough to catch that precious piece of pottery.  And there it lies, shattered on the ground.

At times life is like that.  Sometimes it’s slow motion.  Sometimes it’s very quick.  The end result is the same.  A life broken.  In pieces of the ground.  Sometimes physically.  Sometimes emotionally.  Sometimes relationally.  So, we pick ourselves up and put ourselves back together as best we can… if we can.  But the scars remain.  Often a permanent reminder of the hurt and pain.  Sadly, sometimes re-defining us negatively or as victims.

The Japanese have an art form known as Kintsugi.  The art of repairing broken pottery.  They mend the breakages with urushi lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum.  It makes the broken beautiful again.  The scars remain, but it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. 

I fear we can try too hard to heal ourselves, or to rely on another, while the healing touch of the Master Artist is at hand.  With extraordinary patience he restores our brokenness and caresses our woundedness with precious touches of ‘gold’.  Yes, the scars remain.  But the Master's touch adds beauty. It becomes a part of our story.  A story impacted with brokenness yet defined by love, grace and healing.