If you joined us in our service last week you may have heard me talk about healing in our guided prayer time, and this week Pastor Linda is going to preach from Ephesians 4 and talk us through forgiveness. There is great healing that happens when we forgive. Whether this devotional sounds familiar to you or feels brand new, I encourage you to let God reveal places in your heart that need healing and forgiveness.
May is Mental Health Awareness month and Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month, and in a devotional from the Asian American Christian Collaborative I learned about an art form called kintsugi. The devotional says,
“We recognize this month that Scripture is full of stories where people encounter trauma in different ways. Since Cain and Abel, we see people in Scripture grapple with trauma caused by pain, suffering, and death. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians, we are jars of clay. We are fragile and most of us have cracks.
The Japanese have an artform called kintsugi. Here, the artist takes cracked and broken pottery and mends it back together with gold embossing. Though we may be cracked pots, we find healing and mending through Christ who shines through our cracks. This mental health awareness month we pray you pursue your healing.”
As I did more research on this art form of kintsugi, I found a beautiful description of it from Mari Kondo’s website.
“Perfectly Imperfect
Kintsugi celebrates a break, honoring the story of the object, its ruin and repair. Mistakes and accidents are simply a part of the experience of living. Rather than trying to restore a broken object to its original glory, kintsugi focuses on creating a newly imagined, distinctive vessel….Our scars are what make us uniquely beautiful. By embracing the perfectly imperfect, we can use this beautiful craft to breathe new life into our oldest treasures and practice walking through our daily lives with grace sand loving acceptance. “
Our experiences are what shape us. And they are what shape our neighbors, too- this art form gives us a visual of how we behave and become the way that we are. We are a broken people. All of us. God is the artist. God is the gold embossing that takes our broken pieces and creates something new, and beautiful.
So we are going to take a minute to pray for our own healing, as well as the healing of our neighbors- our siblings- and we’re going to do that through listening prayer. I encourage you to write the following questions down and ask God each question, and then listen. Remember when listening that God is good. So any responses to your questions to God should not feel anxious, they should not feel angry, or condemning. If they are, remember that God is good, God is love, God is peace, God is slow to anger, and quick to rejoice.
God, what are you trying to heal in me right now?
God, reveal to me relationships and areas in my life where I need to forgive, or ask for forgiveness.
God what do you want to say to me about forgiveness?
God thank you that you are good, thank you that you are a God who heals, thank you that you are a God who forgives, and thank you that you are making us new. Amen.
Peace be with you church,
Chelsea Maitland,
Worship Leader