This Easter, as I meditated on the passage about Peter denying Jesus and the disciples abandoning their Lord, a question surfaced in my soul: “How have you, too, been pulled toward a desire to turn away from Jesus?”

What came to mind was an image of my plans for this year in a shattered pile of rubble. They were beautiful and useful plans full of purpose and promise. I found myself telling Jesus, “I’d thought we’d made these plans together!?” I’m sure Peter, too, had imagined pretty great plans when he thought Jesus was restoring the kingdom.

Yet Peter’s plan didn’t turn out as he expected, and neither did mine. The coronavirus border closings booted me from the country where I live and work. Here I am in a strange city, locked away (quarantined) even from my family. This is not how I saw this year going down.

That pile of broken plans is a bit distracting. I know He invites me to trust that His plans for me are best, however wild and out-of-the-box they look. Yet I can feel myself, like Peter, pulled toward disillusionment and self-protection.

Then a new thought dropped into my heart in a word: Kintsugi. This Ancient Japanese art form takes a broken porcelain dish and mends (not fixes) it, to make something new and of greater worth. Kintsugi artists use lacquer and the powder of crushed precious metals to transform the brokenness into something even more valuable.

As I meditated on this, a new invitation arrived: “Bring these shattered pieces to God, the Kintsugi Master. He will make something brand new!”

Your shattered pieces probably look different than mine, but the invitation is the same for you. I’m taking comfort in the fact that we serve a great Kintsugi Master who mends what is broken and makes all things new.

I look forward to seeing how He creates something even more valuable out of all of this.

Crossworld worker Sarah lives and makes disciples in East Asia.

Italicized names were changed to protect identity