For centuries, the Japanese have employed kintsukuroi when repairing broken pottery. It literally means “to repair with gold”. It is the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.

Life breaks us. The “breaking” is not necessarily of your making. Unkindness, loss, abuse, grief, infidelity, betrayal, death….all things that life throws at us. Things we have no control over. They break us. And then God starts working on us…stitching, mending, piecing our hearts and souls back together into something much, much stronger than was there before. He lets us keep the scars so others can see we are conquerors. So we can see where His hand has touched us.

There is nothing beautiful about loss. There is nothing beautiful about the unbearable pain we are forced to endure when we lose someone we love. Nothing. But when I go deep inside and look at my scars, I can see they are intricately woven with strands of pure gold. I can see they are stronger than the surrounding tissue because God wove each thread into exactly the place it needed to be to make me stronger. To me, the fact that God Himself mended my wounds is what brings the beauty.

And…that’s a wrap for 2015. A year of surprises, growth, healing, love, adventure, words, pain, and…beauty. Unexpected beauty. Beauty in all the broken places. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here with me for another trip around the sun. I love you all!

Here’s to a Happy, Healthy 2016!!!

❤️

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

Psalm 147:3 NIV

Photo Credit: www.lakesidepottery.com