Pastor’s Place: From Pieces to Peace

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year. With the kids jingle-belling and everyone telling you be of good cheer!” I know the holiday season is now behind us, but as we step into a new year, I can’t help but pause and reflect on the whirlwind of events that just took place in our lives.

The rush of experiences, traditions, recitals, to-do lists, and expectations that fill our calendars from Thanksgiving through the end of the year are so overwhelming, it’s no wonder the song must remind us to “be of good cheer!” And as we step into a new year, we feel the pressure of evaluation and goal-setting that comes with the turn of the calendar.

If we are honest, we don’t often feel cheerful this time of the year. These pressures cause cracks in the comfortable image we have built for ourselves. And those cracks often lead to breaks that change our lives. For many of us, the holidays are a reminder of the loved one who is no longer with us. Others feel the added stress pressing their marriage to the breaking point. Still others step into a new year with less hope because of financial worry.

Often we find ourselves feeling broken in what should be “the most wonderful time of the year.” And in this brokenness, Jesus comes to help pick up the pieces.

In John 14:27, Jesus encouraged his disciples with these words, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you…” The word Jesus used for peace as he spoke to his disciples had a deep meaning. It meant “one,” or “joining together.”

Jesus came into the world to offer us wholeness. Jesus comes into the broken places of our lives and helps pick up the pieces and join them back together. He doesn’t offer some sort of blind peace that claims ignorance to the brokenness all around us, but rather total healing from every part of our lives that feel out of sorts.

There is an ancient Japanese art form called Kintsugi where a potter forms an earthen vessel and fires it. Once it is solid, he then drops it, purposely breaking it into pieces so that he can rejoin the vessel using a golden adhesive. It is believed that there is more beauty in the scars, now highlighted in gold, of the once broken vessel now brought back together in unity. This is a beautiful illustration for the way Jesus brings peace into our lives.

Give Jesus the broken pieces of your life, and discover his perfect peace.

The Pastor’s Place features columns written by a different area church leader each month. Call 940-728-8284 for more information.