Wabi-Sabi, What?

Have you ever wondered what God thinks when he looks at you? I’m looking out the window at our neighbor’s tree that has split in its trunk. It looks like a good gust of wind could take down half the tree, and I wonder if somedays that is what I look like to God? Especially those days when my tongue has wreaked havoc on those around me. I wonder how I can be saved and yet so broken all at the same time? I wonder how God puts up with me.

Ugly stuff, right? But it’s the stuff that keeps me up at night.

All these thoughts were swirling in my mind, when I happened upon an article discussing the merits of the wabi-sabi design concept. Now I’ve read about kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, silver or platinum. The craftsmen use precious metals to glue the pieces back together, which highlights the imperfections instead of trying to hide them.  It seems that interior designers are now playing off this idea, because according to the article, wabi-sabi also embraces imperfection and simplicity. Cracks and chips are not a reason to toss a piece out, but rather a reminder of their history and what makes them special.

In other words, things don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful and still useful. It then struck me that God may incorporate a little wabi-sabi when he looks at us, because let’s face it, most of us have more cracks than we like to admit and yet he still uses us.

We see this in Scripture too; just think about our heroes of the faith. Abraham lied not once but twice about Sarah being his sister and not his wife just to protect himself with obviously no thought to her wellbeing (Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-18). Then we have Moses who killed an Egyptian guard and struck the rock when he shouldn’t have (Exodus 2:11-12; Numbers 20:10-13). We know that David had a serious moral lapse in judgement, which led to not only adultery but also murder (2 Samuel 11-12). Peter denied Christ (Luke 22:54-62), and John and his brother James struggled with fiery tempers (Luke 9:54).  

This was a group of seriously messed up, broken people; yet we are told they were a friend of God (Isaiah 41:8), a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), the rock on which the church would be built (Matthew 16:18), and the one who received the Revelation of Christ. Yes, they are proof that even though we sin, God will forgive, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12).

I know this is true, but here is my question: How were they able to put their pasts to rest in their own minds? How did Peter ever get past denying Christ that night, and how was David able to lift his head from the shame of what he did?

I think I have finally gotten to the heart of the matter. How did they learn to forgive themselves, because it’s one thing to say you forgive yourself and another thing to actually do it. I know that I struggle with the regret of bad decisions. Over and over, I will beat myself up and I tell myself that I should have known better. On top of that, I have Satan who continually drags up every sin I have ever committed, which sadly is a long list. He delights in whispering that God could never forgive that, and I give Satan more attention than I should.

And if we want to be honest, there are times we might even think that we shouldn’t forgive ourselves. In our warped thinking, we surmise that our self-punishment will somehow atone for our sins. Monks were even known to practice self-flagellation as a form of penance, but that is not at all the message of the gospel. In fact, the Bible is quite clear that we could never do enough to atone for our own sins. We are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and are hopeless apart from Christ: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) God’s wrath for our sins was poured out on Jesus that day on the cross, and we can do nothing to add to his sacrifice. In fact, living in guilt or self-punishment is a denial of the truth of the gospel.

Thus, forgiving yourself requires an admission that we are imperfect and unable to become perfect on our own, but like I said, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. We want to fill in our own cracks in an attempt to hide them from God, but the materials we use don’t work. Our patches fall apart and our cracks only become bigger and uglier. However, when we finally admit to ourselves and God that we need him to do the work in us - to cut out the ugly and broken parts and bind us together with the beauty of his grace – we become whole. While we will always carry the scars of past mistake, they can become a reminder to us of how much we have been forgiven.

Paul, in many ways, set an example of what it looks like to forgive yourself. We are told he was breathing murderous threats against the church when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). But rather than live in the shame and regret over what he’d done, he recognized that he was a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). He turned from his old ways and began a new way of life, and this was not just a penance in an attempt to make up for his past. Rather, it was out of his understanding of God’s great plan of salvation. Paul writes:

This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:15–17).

God didn’t toss Paul aside because of his past. Like a master craftsman, God put the pieces of Paul’s broken life back together, and Paul, in turn, readily received his forgiveness and rejoiced in it. That is the beauty of the Gospel message!

So, what does God see when he looks at you or me? I think he sees clay vessels that are chipped and cracked, but vessels that his Son is lovingly working on. Jesus has filled our cracks with his precious blood, and there is not one of us who is too broken for him to redeem. Not one of us will be tossed aside!

Friends, God looks at us and sees the story of his Son.

Praise God!  Lisa

Discussion Questions

What do you think God sees when he looks at you?

Has there been a time when you tried to fix your own sin? If so, what did you use and how long did it last?

If someone was to ask, how would you explain that you are forgiven even though you still make mistakes?