Resurrection and Restoration — grateful, yet grieving
Early in my grief journey, I discovered the Japanese art of Kintsugi; the process of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold, based on the idea that embracing flaws and imperfections creates a display of beauty and restoration.
The photo above is an example of something that was once broken in pieces and has now been restored into an object of beauty. The lines of gold highlight the cracks of brokenness.
It makes me think of how similar it is with grief.
We experienced a loss that broke us into a thousand pieces. All the shards of our lives laid out, while we wondered if we would survive. But we didn’t stay broken. We entered the space where we could be mended. We are in the process of being put back together in a different way; not the original, but something else. The repaired cracks of our lives remind us of what once was.
Psalm 147:3 (NIV) says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Indeed, the Lord is taking our broken pieces, healing us, mending our broken hearts, and creating something different.
As we prepare to celebrate Easter this Sunday, we will celebrate the resurrection and restoration. The sorrow of Jesus’s death on the cross was transformed into hope for eternal life. We are being restored through the resurrection. Our hope is found in that empty tomb.
