Kintsukuroi for Christ

The older I get the more I am made aware of the fragility of life and my own humanity.  I am not as strong as I used to be, nor as fast.  My brain does not function as the same pace. My eyes are failing.  My ears cannot hear the range of sounds they used to and my stomach cannot consume the amount nor the variety of food it once could.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining.  I wouldn't trade this place in life for all of the previous years combined.  I may not be the man I once was, but in some ways I am better than I ever was.

Paul the Apostle wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:7, "We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves."  

The truth is, we have always been jars of clay and our strength has always been relative. In our youth, we only think we are strong. Our weakness is that we don't know how weak we really are till we are broken. Then and only then, can God's shining light pour through our cracks and be the strength we thought we were. Only He can mend the crevasses and be our power in weakness as Paul talked about.

Have you ever heard of Kintsukuroi? It is a Japanese art form of rare beauty where they take broken clay vessels and repair them with gold.

It is stronger, at the broken places and more beautiful than it's original state. Is that not God? Does He not make us strong in our weakness and more beautiful in our brokenness?
I am not the guy I used to be and boy am I glad. I am grateful to be the man I am now, by the grace of God and I have come to value my cracks, flaws and weaknesses as opportunities for God to shine through and for Him to fill them with His strength and make me a Kintsukuroi for Christ.