Kintsugi: The Glory of Brokenness and Healing

Artisanship is a key part of Japanese culture both in the past and today. Whether they are making sushi or kimonos, artisans will spend years, even decades, repeating the same task in order to perfect their art. The same is true of pottery; an apprentice will serve at a master’s house for years to learn how to make a worthy vase or bowl.

But like all material things, pottery breaks. You can imagine the shock of anyone who accidentally breaks his treasured rice bowl. What would you do in this situation? Would you throw away this masterpiece made by a famous potter who had trained for decades? Or would you try to glue it back together and pretend like nothing happened?

What if there was another way? In Japan it is called kintsugi. It is a method of repairing pottery using golden lacquer to mend the broken pieces. Through kintsugi, a piece of pottery, beautiful but broken, can be transformed into something even more beautiful.

In the Bible, God is described as a Potter in several places: Isaiah 29:16, Isaiah 45:9, and Jeremiah 18:1-6. He is our Creator; we belong to Him and He can make us, or recreate us, as He wishes. In the same vein, I believe God is the One who does kintsugi, healing and restoring broken vessels. As the psalmist said, “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).

Not only does God restore us from our brokenness, but He takes us to another level of glory. For example, Jesus made Peter, a fisherman, His disciple. Yet Peter denied Jesus before He was crucified. In John 21, Jesus healed, forgave, and restored Peter—not to being a fisherman again, or even just a disciple, but to being the rock upon which Jesus would build His church (Matthew 16:18). 

Let’s look at another example—Jesus. Although God revealed His glory through Jesus in His earthly ministry, after Christ’s brutal death on the cross, Jesus rose from the dead and His body was transformed into something glorious, though the nail marks from His crucifixion were still in His hands. 

Kintsugi gives us insight into two biblical principles. The first is that when God heals and restores our brokenness, He doesn’t bring us back to where we were originally, but instead takes us forward into a new realm of glory.

The second principle, especially exhibited by the nail marks in Jesus’ resurrected body, is that our past is part of us, even our broken past. Kintsugi doesn’t conceal that the pottery was broken. Rather, it acknowledges that the pottery was broken but turns our attention to the glittering golden lacquer that restored it.

Going back to an earlier question, What do you do with broken pottery? Or, rather, what do you do if you are the broken pottery? Are you going to live in your brokenness without seeking healing, or perhaps throw yourself out? Are you going to try to glue yourself back together, pretending that you’ve never been hurt or that you’ve lived a flawless life? I hope you will go before your Maker as a broken vessel and ask Him to not only restore you but also make you golden.

Prayer Requests

· Pray for a revival in Japan. Out of a population of 126 million, only 0.6 percent are evangelical Christians, making the Japanese the second-largest unreached people group in the world.[1] 

· Pray for the next generation in Japan, who face isolation and extreme academic pressure, and are being influenced by materialism.

[1] “Country: Japan,” Joshua Project, accessed December 4, 2019, https://joshuaproject.net/countries/JA; “Unreached, Who??,” Send International, accessed December 4, 2019, https://send.org/canada/story/unreached-who-1.