Kintsugi- An art highlighting imperfections

I had someone ask me about my picture yesterday (not here- but on FB). They asked if it was kintsugi- I replied in the affirmative but thought I would take a brief moment to explain why I went with this graphic. 

When I was originally planning out my graphic for my word I planned on using a stained glass window. The idea of how all the parts of the window are separate and yet come together to make a full picture was where my original idea took me. But, then I started thinking of things that need restored- and how that typically means they are broken or damaged. My mind then took me back to my Launch Leadership training with Revelation Wellness™ and one of the weeks that Heather talked about Kintsugi. 

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery. One Website puts it like this

"Kintsugi, the art of resilience...

This ancient technique, discovered in the fifteenth century in Japan, invites us to repair a broken object by enhancing its scars with real gold powder, instead of trying to hide them."

Wikipedia says: "As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

Focus on the Family had this on their blog back in November 2020 (on a side note, if you 
click on the link and read that post- it's good!)

"Kintsugi is the art of repairing something that has been broken with gold, with the understanding that the object is more beautiful because it has been broken. Like the art of kintsugi, God repairs the brokenness in our lives and makes us more beautiful through the process."

This is why I chose the photo of the the Kintsugi bowl to display my word Restore and all of the broken pieces of my life that need restored

    -Physical- covid, parosmia, heart attack, overweight, joint issues, arthritis, etc

    -Mental- Covid did a number on me, I started to find myself sinking into despair, and   becoming someone I did not even know. The loneliness sent me places in my mind.

     -Spiritual- This goes along with the mental. At times, I dig deep into the word but then sometimes I pull away and it takes me days, weeks, even months to get back

    -Dreams- as I mentioned, over the last several years, my dreams took some pretty big hits. I lost those dreams and now- I don't even know what my dreams are anymore. I just know there has to be more than "this".  

I also found this quote at the end of a Joni and Friends blog from 2017

"I’m sure you’ve picked up on the obvious lesson here. Because God does ‘kintsugi’ on his people all the time. When our lives are shattered by terrible trial, He’s going to put us back together in a way that is far more beautiful, more spectacular than before the trial. Rather than conceal the damage, he accentuates his grace through the broken pieces of our life. It’s one way, perhaps the best way, that He performs Romans 8:28 in us – fitting the broken pieces together for our good and His glory."