God's love is the gold that repairs our broken lives.
I once took a train ride from Venice to Rome. I was exhausted from sightseeing, and I fell asleep listening to Christian music. When the train stopped in Rome and I woke up, I was shocked to find that while my headphones were still on my head, they weren't plugged into anything! A thief had run off with my beloved Discman and about 20 incredibly cheesy Christian albums.
Have you ever been the victim of a crime? Sometimes we can shake it off. Sometimes it causes trauma for the rest of our lives.
But what about when evil and suffering isn't "out there" but inside the church? If suffering in general can suggest that God is absent, what does abuse in the name of God say?
No simple answers can resolve this tension. There's something I call "the evil of evil." Evil brings with it a secondary problem. It's senseless—it doesn't belong in this world.
Makoto Fujimura introduced me to kintsugi. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. It could be argued that the final result is even more valuable than the original piece. This artwork offers a powerful metaphor for what God is doing to restore safety, goodness, and yes, beauty to the world.
When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, the fullness of his perfect life overflowed into the void that evil had caused. God gave of himself in an act of supreme love. In doing so, he overmatched the cosmic powers of evil, the inward power of sin, and the threat of death.
**Gold can restore a broken pot. The blood of Jesus restores our souls.**
Yet God's uncommon pursuit is active today. In 1 Peter 4:8-11 we read, "Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins."
That's the gold seeping into the cracks of our broken world. The paradigm example is God's love. As God's love changes each one of us, we offer the gifts that God has given to serve others in love. God's restoration is designed to come into us, heal us, and empower us to offer restoration to others.
**God's ultimate answer to evil is love. And by his love, we are empowered to imitate his example.**
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Have you experienced hurt or abuse in a religious context? How has it affected your view of God?
What does the image of kintsugi—broken pottery repaired with gold—say to you about God's restoration?
How might God be calling you to be 'gold' in someone else's brokenness?
Consider areas of your life that feel broken. Ask God to show you how His love is repairing them.
Think of one person who is hurting. How can you offer God's restorative love to them this week?
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