Clay Pots
Kintsugi
Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer and gold. It is meant to embrace flaws and imperfections and to treat breakage and repair as part of the beautiful history of an object.
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians he speaks of the Christian disciple as having a treasure contained in Earthen Vessels or Clay Pots.
We are all broken in one way or another. It matters not what our state in life is. We cannot fix ourselves let alone others. As I reflect on the beautiful art object I think about how God takes our brokenness and transforms it, glorifies it and even divinizes it. We are the clay and He is the potter. For a Christian to completely surrender themselves to God, and His will, is not something we can do ourselves. We need the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the treasure, God living in us. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Blessed Trinity at our Baptism and at Confirmation we become temples of the Holy Spirit. Do we really realize what we possess? Or do we see ourselves as broken pieces of pottery that could not possibly be repaired let alone loved by He who made us.
But that is not how God sees us. He does love us and wants us to become all we are meant to be including our flaws and imperfections. As the psalmist says For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am wonderfully made. And also the prophet Jeremiah. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.
Even as our outer selves are slowly wasting away our inner selves are being renewed every day as we look not to things seen but to things unseen. God is preparing us for eternal life and He has given us His Spirit as a guarantee. By Jesus dying on the cross for you and for me. He took on all of our flaws, imperfections and wounds. All we have to do is to
Hang It On The Cross
If you have a secret sorrow, a burden or a loss,
An aching need for healing…
Hang It On The Cross
If worry steals your sleep and makes you turn and toss,
If your heart is feeling heavy…
Hang It On The Cross
Every obstacle to faith or doubt you come across,
Every prayer unanswered…
Hang It On The Cross
For Christ has borne our brokenness and dearly paid the cost
To turn our trials to triumph…
Hanging On The Cross