The Language of Scars

Are you still trying to figure out what went wrong with your life?

Was it a job loss that started the downward spiral you feel helpless to escape? Was it divorce? Was it abuse? Perhaps it was the death of a loved one, someone without whom your world no longer makes sense?

Life-changing losses slash across our souls and leave gaping wounds, wounds whose scars imprint our once-perfect world as boldly as a jet's bright contrail cuts across a perfectly blue sky. Broken, lost, and scarred, how do we begin again?

Patti Roberts-Thompson and Carole Lynn King consider this question through the lens of the extraordinary personal experiences of Patti's memoir, The Language of Scars, grounding life lessons in solid biblical truths. The Language of Scars, a language of lived wisdom, emerges in our conversations when suffering, doing its perfect work, brings us to humility. Humility brings us to redemption, and redemption brings us to the river of Grace, where healing washes us and others as it flows over and through our lives.

In ancient Japan, an art form known as Kintsugi sprung from a legendary story of the appeasement of an angry Shogun. The Shogun's favorite teacup was broken to pieces by a careless servant. To save the servant's life, the artisans of the court used liquid gold to glue the pieces back together, in hopes the cup would be even better than before. After gluing it back together with gold, the artisans burnished the cup to a fine glow, and discovered gleaming gold designs that could never be repeated or copied. The cup had become a one-of-a-kind piece of art. The Shogun was delighted, and a new art form was born.

It is the same with us and the Language of Scars. Kintsugi creates art from what is broken in us. God's golden glue gleams along our fault lines, creating an intricate design unique to every restored life. When we bring our broken pieces to the Creator and Redeemer of our souls, our broken places become an intersection with grace, a place where His golden love and healing put us back together again, even better than before.

"I am one of the Lord's many pieces of Kintsugi," Patti says. "Are you? Let Christ have your broken places, and he will make them gleam with His light. Kintsugi of the soul belongs to all who seek it.

Are you ready? This is what redemption looks like. It is Christ who heals, Christ who makes our scars beautiful and increases our value to others through them. Let Him create art from your broken places; Let Him teach you the Language of Scars.