His Masterpiece
Canvas: 30” x 30”
Cost: $1,500
Date: Easter, 2022
Artist Statement
Ephesians 2:6 “He raised us up with Christ…we ascended with him…[10] We have become his masterpiece, a re-created people…joined to Jesus.”
Doug Glynn, a Pastor at Hope Covenant, spoke about an ancient Hebrew tradition where a village would break pots full of rotten food and dung to cut off the member who had brought shame to the village. However, Jesus tells a story of a Prodigal son whose father runs out to meet his returning son on the road, blocks the ritual, and does the opposite…he throws his son the biggest party yet! Then, Doug compared this with the ancient Japanese art of kintsugi where broken pots are mended together with gold and become more valuable in this re-created form.
I’d been exposed to this art form when I lived in Japan but had never thought of it in terms of Easter. About 30 minutes into the service, with tears in my eyes from the beauty of the moment, I get an image of billions of pottery shards flying upwards coalescing into the form of Christ as he ascends into Heaven’s golden light.
I’ve tried throughout my life to gain a feeling of wholeness through trying to achieve lots of goals. But, I never seem to be as good a dad, artist, citizen, or friend, etc. as I dream I could be. Eventually, like the prodigal, I start feeling like a shard from a shattered dung pot. But, Jesus on the cross, through the power of The Holy Spirit, became “shards” when he willingly laid down his life, shouting, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!” Then, on the third day, Christ was raised to life with every human being fused into him—we were re-made into one big kintsugi pot—a priceless masterpiece worth far more than before. And when we say to Jesus, “into your hands I commit my spirit,” then we, like the prodigal, can experience how infinitely precious we are to him!