Just Thinking…..
BROKEN!!
I didn’t really play much with dolls. I liked to make outfits for them with handkerchiefs, or bits and pieces of materials from the sewing baskets. I had a collection of dolls from around the world, but I didn’t play with them either….. nor did I design outfits for them as each had a distinctive costume. But when I found my doll broken, I was heart sick. The doll was hard plastic and the parts were jagged and shattered. My mother cried and apologized for dropping the doll, and I cried and hugged her. The broken doll tugged at my heart strings for a while, and then I went on with life.
BROKEN!!!
I was so excited! I was going on a trip and get to ride the train all by myself. I packed my little suitcase, and carried my coat. The ticket was not yet bought, but we would get one at the station. And then…….. the trip was suddenly canceled. I didn’t want people to see me cry, so I ran to a bush and hid behind it and cried. My parents comforted me, but my heart was broken. It was something that I had looked forward to for so long…… and then it was gone.
BROKEN!!!
My dream was to go to college and be a teacher. The dream came true with scholarships, loans, grants, and jobs. I studied for five years straight, and emerged with my BSE and MA degrees. But towards the end, things were falling apart. I remained on the Dean’s list for grades, and I juggled all my jobs and classes, and I had very little social life. It was getting harder and harder to keep all the pieces of my life in the air without dropping some. I was beginning to crack and break.
RESTORED!
A highlight of our lives was hosting Japanese teachers in our home, and then going to Japan to live with them. It was during this time that I became aware of the Japanese philosophy about beauty. Beauty was linked to being unique, and we were told that very few children in Japan wear dental braces, as each unique mouth of teeth….. crooked or straight…. made the face one of a kind.
This philosophy of beauty is seen in everyday objects and art. Indeed the ordinary everyday items ARE art!
Poetically translated to “golden joinery,” Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi, is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery. Rather than rejoin ceramic pieces with a camouflaged adhesive, the Kintsugi technique employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Once completed, beautiful seams of gold glint in the conspicuous cracks of ceramic wares, giving a one-of-a-kind appearance to each “repaired” piece.
This unique method celebrates each artifact’s unique history by emphasizing its fractures and breaks instead of hiding or disguising them. In fact, Kintsugi often makes the repaired piece even more beautiful than the original, revitalizing it with a new look and giving it a second life.
In addition to serving as an aesthetic principle, Kintsugi has long represented prevalent philosophical ideas. Namely, the practice is related to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which calls for seeing beauty in the flawed or imperfect. The repair method was also born from the Japanese feeling of mottainai, which expresses regret when something is wasted, as well as mushin, the acceptance of change.
https://mymodernmet.com/kintsugi-kintsukuroi/
RESTORED!!
My doll was not repaired, but I got over it. My heart was broken about the canceled trip, but it healed. My life was falling apart, but I discovered the power of Jesus and gave my life to Him. He was able to restore me, to put me back together and make me into a unique person to show His glory.
I was like Kintsugi.…. made into something beautiful and one of a kind, by the use of something precious.
I was like wabi-sabi,….. flawed and imperfect, yet beautiful in the sight of God.
I was like mottainai…. I had regrets over my life that was wasted before I became a Christian.
I was like mushin….. accepting the change in my heart, and accepting the Lordship of Christ.
The broken pieces were put back together in a more glorious and beautiful way with the blood of Jesus!!!!! I have a second life! A born again life!!! I am restored!! Repaired!!
Father, the blood of Jesus sacrificed for me is like the precious gold in repairing what is broken. Thank You for seeing the value in my life and putting my brokenness back together. Amen.
To God be the Glory,
bug