In Japan, when a valuable tea bowl or piece of pottery breaks, the owner doesn’t throw it out.
They take it to a craftsman who gathers the shards of the broken vessel and mends it with lacquer dusted with 24k gold powder in an art form known as “kintsugi.”
The result is an object that is imperfect but paradoxically more beautiful than it was before it broke.
What we can learn from kintsugi is what the Japanese call “the perfection of imperfection.”
When mended, the owner displays the kintsugi bowl in a place of honor in their home where visitors and guests can see and admire it. The display reminds them that imperfections are not only okay–they can even be made resplendent!
So the next time your Inner Critic tells you that you’re beyond repair, incapable, or even unworthy of love and relationship, turn to it and say, “No. God has made me perfect in my imperfection.” We can overcome the many forces that conspire to keep us from fully living our lives when we believe that God can make our damaged hearts beautiful.
-- Ian Morgan Cron
