“Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” Luke 20:18 (NIV)
Everything Has a Breaking Point
Almost every kid I know has it. That one present they gave someone that they are so proud of giving. For my son, it was the hand-crafted coffee mug he bought with his money on a school field trip. The texture of the clay and the uniqueness of the glaze were just enough to let you know it wasn’t made in a factory. It was the work of an artist. The smile on my son’s face when he gave it to me lit up the room. He loved that mug and was thrilled that I loved it too.
But everything breaks at some point, and this week that point came in the form of a butter knife dropped on my mug in the kitchen sink. The moment my son saw the mug in three pieces, I thought he might cry for a moment, then he just hung his head in disappointment. He didn’t say anything. I’m not sure he knew what to say.
Brokenness Comes In Many Forms
Love is the cause of so much of the brokenness we experience, and it shows in the culprits of grief, fear, and regret. From the moment our world became broken in the Garden of Eden, it’s evident that Adam and Eve experienced regret over their decision and grief over their broken relationship with God. The quality of their love for God over self was put to the test. Their expectations of “being like God” went unmet and with that realization came a wave of guilt knowing that brokenness was their own fault.
The Holiday season seems to amplify brokenness. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, a broken relationship, deteriorating health, a financial crisis, or any other number of losses, we feel it more deeply. The weight of brokenness is much heavier, sometimes almost suffocating. We make New Year’s resolutions because we regret how we’ve been living or fear regretting something we won’t get to do.
Yet Jesus called the broken-hearted, those who mourn, blessed. It seems like such an oxymoron to consider brokenness a blessing. It seems almost sacrilegious to think that God created us just to be broken…our bodies, our spirits, and especially our minds. Because love, grief, fear, and regret all begin in the mind. C.S. Lewis once wrote:
“My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself.”
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
Kintsugi
I used the last of my nail polish remover to detach my fingers from the broken cup as I tried to fix it with super glue. The pieces were together, but just barely. There were a few tiny gaps where grains of baked clay had been missed, and a strong wind would have blown the cup back into pieces. As I searched through my drawer to find something else that might work, I came across some gold polymer clay.
Maybe you’ve heard of kintsugi before. It’s the Japanese art of binding broken pottery or porcelain with gold. It’s difficult to fix porous materials like pottery. If you’ve ever tried to glue a flowerpot or anything like it together, you know that the glue just absorbs into the clay (or your fingers), and even if you can put the pieces back together, the pot is weaker and will probably break again in the same place.
The solution is to bind with metal. The Japanese chose gold because of its purity and strength compared to the material around it. It’s rare for something bound using the art of kintsugi to break in the same places again. The gold and new uniqueness of the piece also increase its value, and the item is now more useful than before.
Quality
I sometimes wonder what Mary and Joseph did with the gifts from the Maggi, like the gold. I imagine the joy the wise men felt when they found Jesus and the thrill of presenting Him with such precious gifts. They had no idea that God was using them…to provide for the family as they escaped King Herod and the slaughter of so many babies or perhaps to anoint Joseph’s body with frankincense and myrrh upon his death.
We’ll never know exactly how the gifts were used, but no doubt these gifts of great quality and value were probably used to address issues of brokenness. There are plenty of cheap fixes for brokenness that the world has to offer. Some might hold things together for a short time. I look at the gold clay on my mug, a cheap fix but a powerful reminder. There is only One who binds with the purest gold, making us stronger, more useful, and unique. There’s only One who can give value to our brokenness.
“God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t.”
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
