Fixed With Gold
In our home there are a few dishes that are highly prized. They have value to us because of the giver. There are a couple of glasses that were gifts from my father-in-law to my mother-in-law. There are stories behind them. There is a candy dish Sister Burnett gave us recently. Somewhere is the bottom of a crystal candy dish that the late Nadine Wright gave us. The lid was broken and shattered a few years ago and we were unable to repair it. It was irreplaceable.
Living in a world of mass production and ease of obtaining anything we want we tend to discard of broken things. The products that we purchase are designed to become obsolete so that we will buy the new product when it finally comes out or what we have wears out.
This tendency to simply toss out the broken and the old can creep into our lives in other ways. When relationships are broken in some way, we can tend to toss them. Sometimes we do not even imagine that repair is possible, and if it is things will just never be the same. Sometimes repair may cost too much. I have a few broken computers that I have taken to repair shops. The technicians have said the same thing, "It would cost more to repair it, than it will to just purchase a new one. Try to get your data off of it, and toss it." We tend to toss broken things and our landfills are full.
The ancient world was full of pottery and when pottery was broken, it was usually discarded. Museums are filled with broken pottery from ancient cultures. Israel was no stranger to making, using, destroying, and discarding various vessels made of clay. The writers of Scripture used pottery as an image of humanity and human life.
Humanity is said to be made of clay originating from the dust (Gen 2:7; Job 4:19). We live in earthen vessels (2 Cor 4:7-9).
The LORD uses a trip to the local pottery shop to speak to Jeremiah about what God does with human lives and nations:
Jeremiah 18:1-6 KJV
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
What a word of hope! When our lives are placed into the Hands of One Greater than we are, He can recreate us into something beautiful. But, Jeremiah's message about pottery doesn't end here. In the next chapter, he writes:
Jeremiah 19:1-2, 10-11
1 Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; 2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee... 10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, 11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
I can imagine Jeremiah's emotions plunging. There was hope in the hands of the potter when the clay was still moist and malleable, but now he had taken a vessel that had already gone through the fire and shattered it. There was nothing left to do, but discard it. Yet, if we use the biblical imagination, there is hope even in these verses. This broken vessel is buried and there is a "God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not" (Rom 4:17 NIV).
Ephesians 3:20 KIV
"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us..."
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." (NIV).
Where we may see nothing that can bring about hope, the God of Scripture is able to redeem and restore. Don't throw it away until you bring it to him.
Matthew applied Isaiah's prophetic words to Jesus:
Matthew 12:20 NIV
"A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory."
Have you ever broken the stem of a flower and seen it hang limp? It is hard to imagine how to prop it up. Have you ever seen a candle that is smoking whose wick is burned down to nothing? It's hard to imagine how it might be restored. But, Jesus says that He is willing to work with things that others might think are broken and used beyond repair.
In the book of Galatians there was a group of people who seemed to have their lives and relationships pretty much in order. They boasted in themselves. Under the microscope of God's light, there were things that they needed to work on as well, somewhere deep below the surface. They saw themselves as somehow superior to those who were broken. Paul wrote to them:
Galatians 6:1 NLT
"Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself."
True spirituality, biblical Christianity, is characterized, not by how much we can discard of, but how much we can redeem and restore.
The story the Bible tells can be summed up in this way: God's good creation, creation after the fall, redeemed creation, restored creation. Each of these overlap.
The creation around us is still good as God originally made it. Humanity is still made in the image of God. We sometimes see the good shining through in the beauty of nature or the love of a mother. But, we also know that we live in a world where nature is red in tooth and claw. There are earthquakes and tsunamis and human sin, the results of living in the fallen creation.
It is in this fallen world into which we are all born. There is a measure of suffering that we all experience. We will not escape the human experience without some measure of brokenness. Sometimes brokenness surprises us. We are healthy and then cancer strikes, and accident, divorce, the infidelity of our partner, a changing economy and job loss, the sickness of a child, hopes dashed against the hard rocks of life and the pottery is shattered. Broken. Shards of our lives lay on the ground and it is hard to imagine how we could even put it back together again. The writer of Ecclesiastes agreed with Paul that life under the sun is filled with futility and frustration because there are times when God's good creation just does not seem to work as it should! But, in the biblical imagination and in the experience of thousands of people who know Jesus, this is not all there is.
Redeemed creation is that part of the human story where we find a God who takes the broken pieces of our lives and rather than discarding of them puts them back together miraculously. But, He doesn't always do it in the ways that we hope.
We often want Him to put us back together with no marks, no scars, no indication of the fall, no cracks in the vessel. The Bible is clear that God is near to the broken and the contrite. He delights in helping those who realize that ultimately they are powerless to help themselves. He is benevolent. He is the Potter in the sense that Jeremiah saw Him at the potter's house, but He is more. He is also a Potter who is able to redeem your brokenness. He can put you back together again in ways you can't imagine and uses our redeemed brokenness for His Glory, our benefit, and the benefit of all those around us. God will never waste our suffering, ever. And if we will bring our broken pieces to Him, He will repair them with gold.
Legend says that a Japanese dignitary accidentally dropped his favorite teapot. He sent it to China to be repaired and when it was returned, He was unsatisfied with it. He commissioned his court to find a better way to repair broken things. The result was what came to be know as Kintsugi -- "golden joinery" or "golden repair."
"Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum; the method is similar to the maki-e technique. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise." (Wikipedia).
"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in" (Leonard Cohen).
Leonard Cohen in his classic song Anthem sang these words, “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” (Leonard Cohen).
We live in the third part of the story of human history. In this place God's good creation, fallen and broken people and systems and redeemed creation all live together. Jesus came into the world as a human being with a nature like ours in order to set things right from the inside out. He experienced what human life and death are like, but He did not stay dead. He is alive! His Body was broken for us. He experienced redemption with and for us. God is setting all things right. One day God will restore all things, but right now He takes our broken pieces of the pottery of human lives and welds them back together with the seal of His Spirit. Gold in Scripture represents God's glory and the divine nature.
God chooses to use broken things. The heroes and sheroes of Scripture are broken people. The writers of Scripture do not attempt to repair their broken places by writing the story in such a way that they are hidden. It is at those broken places that the light shines through.
Paul said that he had a difficulty in his life, a place of brokenness that he really fervently sought God to completely do away with. God said, "No, Paul that is just a part of your story. I will not take it away, but in the cracked places I will put the Gold of My Grace!" It is at those places where you are most broken that if you will place them into the hands of God, you can be most strong.
God will you make everything like it used to be?
Our lives change when they are broken by grief, loss, divorce, sickness, struggle and we wish and pray that things could be what they once were. But, they never can. Sure we may place some concealer on our scars, but they are there.
When Jesus rose from the dead, He brought His scars with Him and it is from those scars that our victory resides! It is from those scars that the light shines through.
When you're put back together again and sealed with gold, your value increases.
Ephesians 1:7-13 KJV
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
The light shines from the broken places.
There are areas in our lives where we have failed, it is from those areas where God wants to shine the brightest.
Bringing those broken things into the Presence of the Potter will help. There may be a missing chunk of you. God has enough gold to fill it. But, you have to be honest with Him. Honest with others, Honest with Himself.
Yesterday, in conversation with myself, I thought about who I was in my 20s. I thought I was righteous. Oh, I knew all about my broken places, but the unconscious thought was that I was better than I was. It wasn't until later and the longer I live I realized that there were places in me that I was hiding, broken places that I had refused or didn't realize that I needed to place in His Able Hands. Parts of my history that I chose to deny. Secret rooms in my heart that I didn't want Him or anyone else to see. When we can give those places to Him, He can make it better than it was.
Don't throw yourself away. Bring yourself to Him!
The Bible uses the word edify when speaking of the ministry responsibility that we all have to one another. The word edify means to build up. In building up there is a repair that happens. There is gold that is applied to the cracks of our lives. The original word for edify has the sense of resetting a bone that has not healed properly.
Sometimes there are things we have tried to put back together to no avail, or there are gaps in the broken pieces that we cannot imagine can be filled. If you will place it in the Hands of Jesus, He can make it better than new.
It is not too late. There is hope. Start where you are. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Everyone has a next step as we move towards final restoration.
Conclusion
Have you believed the gospel? Placed you faith in Christ? Turned away from your own way, your sins, and begun walking towards God? Have you been baptized in Jesus precious Name? Oh, remember that word, bury? Jeremiah was told to bury the broken pieces of pottery in the field. It was too broken by human standards to fix. When we are buried with Christ in baptism, the promise of the resurrection through the Holy Spirit is given to us. The baptism of the Spirit is the Gold of God's Grace in our lives.
Is there some broken place in your life that you have yet to place in the Hands of God?
Why not try and see what His Redemptive work looks like? You're not too broken for God to fix. In fact you're broken in all the right places...
