“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” ~Khalil Gibran

Kintsugi is a powerful metaphor for spiritual acceptance. Our grief and time in the wilderness have left scars from mistakes and losses – the damage that results. Although painful sometimes, transformation is our ability to wear our scars proudly, to celebrate the person we have become throughout a journey that was filled with both joy and sadness. Both should be appreciated for the person we have become.

None of us gets through life unscathed, and we become more powerful because of the scars that remain. It is difficult to continuously try to hide our scars. The Japanese art of Kintsugi is a powerful reminder to us that it does not matter if we are damaged. Once we have mended the pieces, we will be far more beautiful than ever before.

Kintsugi means “golden joinery.” It is an ancient Japanese art form that rejoins the broken shards of pottery with gold or silver, rendering the fault lines beautiful and strong, restoring the broken vessel to usefulness and often much more beautiful and stronger than it was originally. There is no attempt to hide the damage, for it is revitalized with a transformed new life.

There is reconciliation with our flaws and accidents of time. The breaks have a spiritual merit of their own, and we heal by embracing the damaging experiences. We are encouraged to respect what is damaged and scarred, through care and love. Our damaged lives are not to be discarded, but celebrated as stronger and more beautiful with a legacy of their own.

The kintsugi method conveys a spirituality not of replacement but acceptance. There is reverence and restoration. The gold-filled cracks of a once-broken vessel are a testament to what it has been through. 

California Disaster Relief Chaplains apply the metaphor of kintsugi as they take the broken pieces of people’s lives and rejoin those pieces like broken shards of pottery. They share God’s love through Scripture and prayer – “And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.  Psalm 12:6  (NIV).”