In Judges 7 we read about Gideon and how Yahweh whittled his army of 10,000 down to only 300 men so he could attack and defeat his enemy. And Yahweh would clearly have all the credit and they wouldn’t be able to say, “Our own hands saved us”.

The enemy was so numerous, that we’re just told, “they were like locusts”.

So Gideon attacked 10,000 soldiers with only 300 men, each carrying a trumpet and a pitcher which had a torch burning inside, (but which couldn’t be seen from the outs).
They surrounded the camp, and then suddenly they all blew their trumpets and broke their pitcher, letting the fire of the torch shine out.
Normally 1 soldier per group of 100 would be the trumpeter and carry the torch. So suddenly hearing 300 trumpets and seeing the torches surrounding them, their enemy would have thought… “Crikey, 30,000 men are attacking us! And we’re surrounded!”… No wonder they panicked.

Breaking the pitcher let the light of God shine out, and brought him the glory.
And for us too. In Romans 9 Paulus says we’re like clay vessels, which God uses for his own purposes.
Once we become a Christian God usually breaks us a bit to let his light shine out from us. And he uses that opportunity to fix some part of us so we conform more to his son and less to the world. Then he breaks some more, and conforms us some more.

Kintsugi is a Japanese art form of glueing broken pottery back together using gold glue.

In Japan, it’s considered prideful to think that you’re perfect, (because everyone knows you’re not), so it has become the custom amongst artisans and craftsmen to deliberately make it clear that you’re not trying to be perfect.
For example, when they make bowls they will deliberately distort them a little so they’re obviously not exactly round. They’re kind of saying, “I wasn’t even trying to make it perfect”.

With kinstugi they’re not trying to make the pottery look perfect again. They’re not trying to cover up the fact that it was broken.
In fact they’re highlighting it. Highlighting the imperfection, highlighting that it’s been broken and repaired.



It’s also quite beautiful to see something which was broken, more than restored. And the gold makes it feel like that ordinary bowl is now so treasured that its owner even used gold to fix it. It’s now even more special than the original bowl ever was.

And that’s how Yahweh sees us. Something everyone thought was just ordinary, but to him is so treasured that he uses gold to fix us.
I like the idea that when Yahweh breaks and fixes us as Christians, you can see the golden glue that he uses to do that. It’s his trademark, and kind of an honour for us to say, “Look where God fixed part of me!”. Not for our glory, but for his.

It’s not shameful to have been broken by God, in fact, it’s an honour that he considers us his children and worthy of fixing.
In Hebrews 12 we read “My son, don’t take the discipline of Yahweh lightly, nor give up when exposed by him. For whomever Yahweh loves, he disciplines. And he flogs every son whom he accepts to himself.”
Because Yahweh loves you, he breaks and disciplines you. To make you better.
Let him.

It’s something to be proud of.
Show off your golden glue. Look for it in others.
We, (Christians), are all God’s artwork. We are all his treasure.