Deeper understanding of true beauty

Today, while reading a blog (yes, I read lots of blogs- everyday) I saw this quote.....
"When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when somethings suffered damage and has a history, it becomes more beautiful."    ~ Billie Mobayed

So, tonight, I took some time and looked this up, to see if this was just a good story.  Here is what I found out....
The Japanese have a long tradition of repairing pots with gold; it’s called “kintsugi” or “kintsukuroi”. Curtis Benzele tells it this way: “The story of Kintsugi may have begun in the late 15th century, when the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa sent a damaged Chinese tea bowl back to China to be fixed. It returned held together with ugly metal staples, launching Japanese craftsmen on a quest for a new form of repair that could make a broken piece look as good as new, or better. Japanese collectors developed such a taste for kintsugi that some were accused of deliberately breaking prized ceramics, just to have them mended in gold.

“The term “kintsugi” means ‘golden joinery’ in Japanese and refers to the art of fixing broken ceramics with a lacquer resin made to look like solid gold” (….and often actually using genuine gold powder in the resin). “Chances are, a vessel fixed by kintsugi will look more gorgeous, and more precious, than before it was fractured.”

Wow!  What an amazing picture of how Jesus see us. He sees us full of gold.  We are His workmanship and He is the master potter.    Often, it is the very things that seemed to be the most hurtful and damaging to us, that become the things that Jesus uses to reach and touch other people.  And while Jesus does take away the sin in our lives, sometimes the consequences of our own or others actions can leave scars and sometimes leave us broken.  But the King of Kings fills in all of those broken places with his gold and he sees us as beautiful.

To see the value of a broken pot repaired to a new beauty,  helps us to see with new eyes.  We need to  see value where we may only have seen trash . Perhaps if we are less ruthless with broken things….more gentle with those around us who experience brokenness…..less fearful, more hopeful when we ourselves experience brokenness,  THEN we will be seeing with the eyes of Jesus. 

Jesus, thank you for bringing this to me today.  What a beautiful picture of how you heal and repair us in the midst of our brokenness.  Help me to be able to see and appreciate all of those repairs you have done in me.  And Jesus, give me grace to see with new eyes - your eyes - as I look at the world around me.  Holy Spirit thank you for showing me this quote today, so that I could understand in a new way, how you see me.  Touch those who read this blog with a deeper revelation of their true beauty.  Amen