Look Beyond The Cracks

 In ancient Japan, there was a tribe that was famous for its pottery. After creating beautiful works of art, they would smash them on a rock. Then they would collect the pieces, sometimes hundreds of them, and put them back together with melted gold sealing the broken pieces. This process was called Kintsugi or "Golden Joinery." This process even started a philosophy of "no mind," which encompasses the concepts of non-attachment, acceptance of change, and fate as aspects of human life. Not only is there no attempt to hide damage to the bowl, but the repair is also literally illuminated for all to see.

As I have grown in my walk with Christ, I have seen where God does the same thing in the lives of the Christian. Sometimes God allows us to smash our lives into a million pieces so that he can fill the broken places in our lives. One day, when we are finally back in perfect union with Christ, he will be our most significant source of joy and happiness. 

If you look at the places in your life with cracks or damage, I am sure that you will find Jesus holding you together. When we are saved, we are in him, and he is in us. We are one with him, cracks and all, remade in His likeness. The bitterness of death and the pain of sin that caused us to break in the first place will be forgotten, and all you will see is the richness and grace of Jesus Christ. And we are more beautiful for having gone through the process.

I can still look back on some of the most painful chapters of my life, moments when I couldn't begin to understand why God wasn't doing what I needed him to do the most at that moment. The moments that still break my heart today. But even through those times, I can see some of the good things God was bringing out of those moments and the things he is still doing through them. 

God was sharpening my senses. He has used it for ripping idols out of my life at the root and taking a jackhammer to my faulty foundation. He has used it to show me areas of blindness and unbelief that I doubt he would have been able to show me before. 

I can already see where he has poured his gold into the cracks of my life. I know deep down in my heart that one day I will see what he was doing in my life through all the painful moments, and the picture will be wonderful. I firmly believe that we see our lives through a keyhole, and God sees them through a huge bay window. And the journey from A to Z wouldn't be as wonderful if we knew the surprises that came along the way. The beauty we find in life's struggles makes it all worth it in the end.