Anchored Abode - Striving to change the world one abode at a time... starting with my own. Anchoredabode.com

Kintsugi Pottery Recreates New Beauty (Jeremiah 15-21)

Kintsugi Pottery Recreates New Beauty (Jeremiah 15-21)

Beauty from ashes is often the dream of those who are shattered. The art of Kintsugi pottery brings about new life, purpose, and beauty to what others deem as dumpster worthy.

When we walk through trials, it helps a considerable amount to start with a basis of understanding God’s sovereignty and holiness because we know that He can make beauty from our ashes.

After we find ourselves lying in broken pieces, it is God who can mold us together through a refiner’s fire to recreate a new kind of beauty.

It’s never too late to start!

Download your first two weeks free by signing up below (or buy Book One of the Family Bible Plan)!

Beauty from ashes is often the dream of those who are shattered. The art of Kintsugi pottery brings about new life, purpose, and beauty to what others deem as dumpster worthy.

When we walk through trials, it helps a considerable amount to start with a basis of understanding God’s sovereignty and holiness because we know that He can make beauty from our ashes.

After we find ourselves lying in broken pieces, it is God who can mold us together through a refiner’s fire to recreate a new kind of beauty.

It’s never too late to start!

Download your first two weeks free by signing up below (or buy Book One of the Family Bible Plan)!

The Potter...

What does it mean that God is the potter and we are the clay? First and foremost, He is our Creator. Look back to Jeremiah’s calling as a prophet. God knew and created him specifically with the giftings and talents for him to carry out the ministry. 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

God designed each of us. Your life was created by THE Creator Himself. How amazing is that to consider. Every fiber of your being was part of His plan for you.

This is an amazing gift whether we realize it or not. This ought to be motivating enough to obey Him… His sovereignty over our eye color, thickness of our hair, height, etc. can serve as daily reminders that we can never grasp how sovereign God is, and THAT is the God we serve!

Molding pottery...

In Jeremiah 18, God sends Jeremiah to watch a man make pottery. He formed the clay, it wasn’t looking how the potter wanted, so he refashioned it into a different type of pot.

He designed the pot as he saw fit to how the clay reacted to molding.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

What an illustration of our own lives. We have choices in this life, and how we react to molding and refining by God is left in His discretion for how we will be shaped.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.

Will we repent when God intends to mold us? Or will we harden our hearts?

Will you listen...

God sent a prophet to tell the people of Israel to stop, repent, and turn away from their sins.

Their reply was essentially, “meh, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing and see what really happens.”

To be so cavalier about God is, in itself, a sin. Our lives need to be FOR GOD in every area, not just a passive ‘sure’, or ‘close enough’.

Every so often, it is helpful to remember there are three types of people in this world (Christians, “Christians”, and non-Christians)… only ONE will go to Heaven. Which one are you?

Are you a cavalier Christian trying to squeeze into Heaven without truly living for God? You cannot mock God by living this way, He sees and knows everything! A bigger understanding of His sovereignty will hinder this line of thinking for a believer.

“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Wickedness abounds...

Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, 2 and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you.

One chapter over and we find God sends Jeremiah to Potsherd Gate with a newly purchased clay pot. 

The Potsherd Gate overlooked the main dump for broken pottery. When pottery breaks or cracks, it is not useful so it is tossed away.

Far worse than a dump, it was also the Valley in which people performed rituals and actually sacrificed their children to pagan gods. We can look at our world today and see the brokenness all around, that sin has so pervaded people’s lives that they take such a loose view of the very lives God created.

Child trafficking is one of those same travesties that wicked men (as in, humankind) have perpetuated. It has risen to levels never before known. But we see here, that form of wickedness is not new; the same sinful attitude was pervasive all throughout the Old Testament as well.

God sends Jeremiah there with a message of complete destruction for their lack of repentance and their sold out mentality for wickedness.

The Valley would be known as the Valley of Slaughter as part of the consequences for their actions.

“For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere."

Broken Pottery...

“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury."

God gave a visual for the people of Israel along with a fierce message of condemnation.

The result? Jeremiah was beaten and put in jail.

So we must turn this to ourselves and ask, would we respond with stiff necks and harden our heart against a challenge to live for God?

God had Jeremiah destroy that piece of pottery as a symbol to the people of what He can do. But His plan isn’t to leave Israel completely desolate… He knows and already shared that a small remnant would survive and be made whole again.

[B]ut ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
Kintsugi Pottery Recreates New Beauty - God's word creates beauty out of our broken pieces

The strength of gold...

Kintsugi is the Japanese broken pottery repair method using gold.

They repair broken pottery by using gold, silver, or platinum to fill in the cracks. The broken pottery remains useful, takes on an entirely new look, and has it’s own delicate beauty attached to it now.

What a beautiful picture of our Christian walks.

There are times we are shattered to pieces as we go through trials and storms. We can feel broken and useless, ready to call it in.

But God can make beauty out of anything and it comes as a result of refining our hearts and minds. 

Oftentimes, the Bible lays out for us that God will bring us into the fire in order to purify us. To clarify, it helps to understand the basics of how a metal smith works with metals.

In layman’s terms (my level of understanding this), a refiner heats the metal (fire), removes the dross (discards), and is left with a pure substance.

Anchored Abode

Just as the gold fills the cracks in the pottery, God fills our brokenness with refined gold to make us whole again.

He can make beauty out of our ashes.

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Do you live for HIS glory?

A motto that should fast to every area in our lives… why not grab a daily reminder to boast for Whom we live to please?

Soli deo Gloria!

Last Week

Anchored Truth Tuesdays

~It is appreciated but not required that you follow my social media accounts

~I do ask that you use the Anchored Truth Tuesdays logo image on your site somewhere or on the post itself; if you click on the picture a new window will open with html instructions

~ Family friendly posts only (I reserve the right to delete any that are deemed inappropriate); with a direct link to a specific blog post

~We have a Pinterest group board, ” Anchored Truth Tuesdays, where all who link up are welcome to also upload their content–you’ll just need to like Anchored Abode first, and then request to join

~It is appreciated if you spread the blogging love to those around you in the Anchored community by visiting their sites, following them, or liking/sharing posts
~By submitting a link, you are agreeing to be added to our email list as well as allowing the use of pictures/content as featured posts on our social media accounts

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Kintsugi Pottery Recreates New Beauty (Jeremiah 15-21)

2 thoughts on “Kintsugi Pottery Recreates New Beauty (Jeremiah 15-21)

Add a Comment

Scroll to top