Kintsugi and our Kids

Parents, if you are looking for a visual metaphor to share with your kids about the redemptive work God does in the lives of broken sinners, google the word Kintsugi. This Japanese word is spelled K-I-N-T-S-U-G-I. Kintsugi, translated “golden joinery” is the Japanese art of repairing a valuable broken pottery tea bowl that’s been dropped and shattered, by mending the breaks with a glue compound mixed with gold or some other precious metal. In today’s world, we like to Super Glue our broken dishes in ways that hide the breaks and imperfections. But in Kintsugi, the breaks and repairs are visible, making the imperfections a part of the object’s beauty. Show your kids pictures of Kintsugi. Describe how each of us are valued in God’s eyes, yet in the midst of our sin and living in a sinful world we are broken. But God, through Christ, picks us up, carefully puts us back together, and restores us in ways that make us more beautiful than we ever were before. Thanks be to God for His grace!