“And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.”- Jeremiah 18:4
Kyle Idleman concludes Chapter 1 of The End of Me with the encouragement that God loves to make the broken beautiful. William MacDonald (Lord, Break Me) points out that broken things lose their value in the physical world. However, the reverse is true in the spiritual world. Broken things are precious, revealing God’s beauty and power. Flaws are openings (italics author’s).
Pastor Idleman loves Jeremiah’s beautiful image of God sitting at the potter’s wheel and refusing to toss a flawed piece of pottery. One piece of clay has endless possibilities. Kintsugi is a ceramic restoration process developed in Japan in the 1500s. In the process of sealing the broken ceramic pieces together, the cracks are highlighted and traced over in gold. They are not hidden.
More often than not, the restored Kintsugi pottery turns out to be more valuable than the original, unbroken piece. The question for us is whether or not we are willing to let our cracks show. Kyle concludes:
“It’s only after we’ve been made whole that we are ready to fulfill our purpose and be used by God. That’s the inside-out way of Jesus- in you, then through you.”
Today’s question: How has God’s beauty and power been revealed through your brokenness? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Living the dream”