ONE MINUTE WITH MARLIN

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend an event featuring a visual artist I have come to appreciate very much. Makoto Fujimura shared of kintsugi, a 15th-century practice of mending broken tea bowls with a lacquer mixed with powdered gold. He held in his hands a kintsugi bowl, one more beautiful, more valuable, precisely because of the imperfections. The event was held the week before Easter and Mako highlighted Jesus’ wounds still with Him today. He will return victoriously, but with scars from His time with us a few thousand years ago.

As my friends and I drove home that evening, we discussed our many thoughts and feelings, and one caught me square. Gabe said he is struck by the fact that life, beauty, and redemption are interspersed with suffering—and quickly added his wish of it not having to be that way. I have sat in those ashes since that conversation and realized you cannot have redemption without brokenness and suffering. Jesus himself chose to walk that road, bringing redemption out of suffering, and we simply get to follow those footsteps inside our daily experience. The Lord takes the broken fragments of our lives and rebuilds them into exquisite examples of His sovereignty. It never ceases to amaze me.

As always, may you find joy in the simple things.  //

Marlin
Plain Values Publisher