A painted cathedral ceiling

 

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Beauty in brokenness

23 August 2019
‘He has made everything beautiful in its time.’

Ever broken something you really treasured? You could try and mend it, glue the pieces back together, but it would never be the same again. Looking at it would always remind you that it had been broken, and that it had lost its original beauty. We can feel the same way about our lives. Sometimes we experience hurt, pain, and trials which leave us feeling broken. Even though we try and put the pieces of our lives back together, we know that we’re never going to be the same again. We can think our beauty has gone, and that we’re damaged and scarred. But when we let God take the broken pieces, He can put us back together in a way that’s even more beautiful than before. The Japanese have a practice called Kintsugi, where broken pottery is pieced back together using gold. It’s clear that the pots have been broken, but the gold increases their beauty and value. There is beauty in the brokenness. And God can bring beauty from our brokenness too. Hurts and trials are going to come our way, and we will be scarred and cracked from them. But God’s grace and mercy can show through those cracks. They tell our story of how God’s redeemed us and put us back together. Jeremiah 18 compares God to a potter; we are in His hand, and He has the power to create and re-create us. He makes everything beautiful, even the things we think are messy, broken, and beyond redemption. The Bible tells us that ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time.’ Are we ready to let Him bring beauty out of our brokenness?

 

What Now?

Write down the times you’ve felt broken or scarred by life. Ask God to bring beauty out of those times.

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