Uncommon Vessels

For some time now I have been intrigued by kintsugi—a Japanese art form that repairs broken pottery by patching the pieces back together with metal-filled resin.  Usually gold is the metal of choice.  The restoration process typically produces a vessel that is more valuable than the original piece because of the presence of the gold.

We all try to patch the broken places of our lives to bring wholeness. We all get to choose how we go about repairing the damage. We are surrounded by tantalizing options, many which only entrap our lives more, so what we use for the repair is profoundly important.  

Rare is the person who opts for the path of a really good restoration, which usually takes patient determination and a slow and steady pace.  Rare is the one who looks at what is of most value and leans in to gain the prize that is in the distance.  Rare is the one who doesn’t hide the brokenness, but is willing to let their life be displayed to reflect the precious material that repaired them. 

The glorious news for us is that today is not too late.  Today we have the option before us to choose well.  Take one really good step.  It will inspire you to take another and before long you will have escaped the prison bars and your chains will be falling to the ground.

Discouragement is likely to hunker in on you and  nip at your heels, but you can turn and look it in the face and remind it of the distance you’ve gone and the goal you aren’t giving up on.  Defeat does not own you. There is a field out there and you get to dance in it.  You get to be a vessel that receives good things and pours them out to others.  You get to live.