The Broken Jar  

God can heal a broken heart, but He has to have all the pieces. ~Author Unknown

I am a broken jar.  Have you ever thought about your earthly body this way?  I have cracks and chips and sometimes I even fall totally apart and lie in pieces.  The thing is God doesn’t intend for us to stay that way. 

God has a Master Plan and it includes you.  Some of us will recognize the Master Plan in ourselves and others will never see that they have a Master Plan that God has created just for them.  The Great Architect of the universe provides us with all the tools necessary to put our broken jars back together.  We first have to let go and let Him do His work in us. 

There is an old Japanese craft called kintsugi which means golden joinery.  Many jars that were broken would be repaired by a resin or sap derived from a plant related to poison ivy.  The craftsman would take the jar and glue the pieces together with this resin and then they would take powdered gold and sprinkle it across the seam illuminating the repair.  Tea ceremonies focused on the beauty in imperfection. 

“Even in tea bowls that were not repaired, people came to look for the slight idiosyncrasies, even flaws, in the glaze that made one bowl more interesting than another. The context of tea drinking created a moment of awareness of transiency, of the way in which all objects, like all human beings, exist in a fleeting way and are decaying.” Source: Smithsonian research newsletter

When I think about the things in my life that have hurt me, I try to remember there is a Master Plan and there will be times when I won’t understand what that plan is or why.  The only thing I can do is trust Him and be patient. My jar will be broken over and over again in this life but I have a Master Craftsman who can piece it all back together if I will allow Him to work in and through me.  It may be Gorilla Glue or Duct Tape that holds me together but I am still a work of art in the Father’s eyes and you are too.        

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, my jar gets broken over and over again.  I have fault lines that need repair.  I give you permission to do whatever it takes to repair my broken jar so that others may see You as the illumination through my cracks.   

Scripture:    But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.  So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.  2 Corinthians 4:7-12