You’re a Kintsugi Vessel!

Are you ready for some good news?

Since the 15^th century, the Japanese have made pottery repair an art form.

Master artisans use a technique called Kintsugi (“golden joinery”) to mend broken ceramics with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold.

The golden glue in the repaired vessel makes the pottery more beautiful because it holds together its story.

The ancient art of Kintsugi affirms that the vessel’s broken history is part of its beauty. Kintsugi doesn’t try to hide the pottery’s troubled past. It uses gold to make the once-broken, now-mended vessel more valuable than before.

When you look at a bowl repaired with the Kintsugi technique, the randomness of the golden seams is lovely. You don’t look at the Kintsugi bowl and say, “Oh dear, it is previously broken pottery.”

You look at it and say, “What a beautiful vessel.”

That’s how God restores our lives.

He doesn’t waste the brokenness of our past—He incorporates it into our lives in a restored way that adds value to our future.

His redemptive power is like golden Kintsugi glue.

The mended life we have in Christ isn’t a cover-up of our troubles—it’s a restoration job.

I think that’s how God will restore us post-pandemic. Many of us have suffered deep disappointments. Some have lost much. Businesses have been broken. Dreams have been deferred. Plans have been fractured. But God won’t scrap us and start over. And He won’t gloss over the pain. He’ll repair us with golden glue.

There will be ways that your life will be more beautiful because of all that has been broken.

Your troubles aren’t the end of your story. You’re a Kintsugi vessel whose fractures are mended by the gold of God’s grace. Your real story is in the golden seams. God is a master artisan Who loves to restore. And that’s the Gospel!