“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
Golden Repairs
Someone wrote recently that God has used what I have written to prepare her heart for unexpected difficulty and suffering that she may encounter in the future. She wrote that often when something surprising happens the first response is denial… we may think “why is this happening to me?” The denial can actually freeze us and keep us from responding appropriately.
We need to prepare our hearts for the unexpected—a trial, a disappointment, an illness, a loss… we need to be ready to face it. We can, very simply, turn TO God or AWAY from Him by our response. We may not even mean to turn away from Him, but if we aren’t purposefully turning to Him, that’s what we’re doing. We need to determine ahead of time, before we face something, that we will choose to turn our hearts to the Lord. We need to get ready! We can’t make it in our own strength. We need Him!
I’ve written about it before, but this brought to mind again the beauty of “kintsukuroi” (also known as kintsugi) pottery in Japan. It’s the art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The piece becomes more beautiful and more valuable because of the repair work that has been done.
When we go through hard times we often feel broken. Life itself can feel shattered and in pieces. But we serve a God who picks up the pieces, pours the “gold” of His love into our lives, and redeems the pain, turning it into beauty. We can’t do this ourselves, but the Master Potter can! The hard time is not the end! God uses the difficulty to make us more like Him with His gold repair work in our lives. The piece of pottery is beautiful… more so for the gold worked into it. In the same way our lives become more beautiful as we allow Him to work in our suffering.
When sharing with a friend this week, I was reminded of the words to an old song we sang in church when I was growing up:
“It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Him.
One glimpse of His dear face,
All sorrow will erase.
So bravely run the race
Till we see Christ.”*
Everything we go through is worship to Jesus. And He gives us the grace to make it through! When we turn our hearts to Him in the hard times, He puts the pieces of our broken hearts back together with His loving oil of healing. He doesn’t reject us or throw us away in our brokenness. He pours “gold” into the heartache and redeems beauty from the ashes. We can become strong in our broken places. How good He is!
Father, we trust You to repair the broken places of our lives with Your love of gold. Only You can do this. Thank You!
How “beautiful” is this analogy! Awesome! God is soooooooo good!
Thank you, i needed a new perspective today…God indeed doesnt throw us away when we are broken, He makes something more beautiful and precious if we will surrender and let Him. Praying I am able to surrender all the broken things in my life so He can make something better.