The other day, my parents, my two teens, and I enjoyed a sushi lunch at a Japanese restaurant in town. It was my first time there. Compared to some of the fancier restaurants with over-the-top decor, this place wasn’t as polished. The ambiance was relaxed. The vibe was laid-back. It felt like someone’s lived-in space, rather than an over-engineered aesthetic that announced, “This is a Japanese restaurant.”

It reminded me of another Japanese term that I came across recently: wabi-sabi.

(That phrase sounds too fun to be real, right? Similar to ‘wasabi’ but doesn’t clear your sinuses!)

Wabi-sabi essentially translates to finding beauty in imperfection.

We find echoes of it in daily life.

It’s the chipped coffee mug that you reach for every morning.

It’s the fading artwork on your refrigerator that your child drew in third grade.

It’s the tangled weeds in your garden that have grown into a wild bouquet. 

It’s the eclectic Japanese restaurant that has a lived-in feel. 

There is imperfection all around us. And yet, even in the imperfection, there is intrepid beauty. 

While the term wabi-sabi has its roots in Buddhism, the idea of “beauty in brokenness” is woven throughout the Bible.

In Scripture, however, it’s not merely about an appealing aesthetic. It goes far beyond that. It’s about the flawed inner person being transformed by the grace of God.

In the Christian faith, there is beauty in being broken before the Lord. 

We don’t have to hide our faults and failures before the Lord. Instead, God takes the fragments of our story and rewrites the narrative. The palmist reminds us: “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:170)

Like the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where shattered pottery is restored with gold, God does something even more profound. When we acknowledge our brokenness before God, He doesn’t just “fix” us, He tenderly brings forth something precious from the pieces. He fills those cracks with His “gold” of grace. The cracks in our lives become places of redemption and restoration. 

In the Bible, the apostle Paul refers to believers as “earthen vessels” or “jars of clay.” Misshapen, odd, cracked, ordinary, and lacking polish and finesse. And yet the Lord sees us beautiful enough to be containers of the good news. His treasure (the beauty of the gospel) shines through us, imperfect and frail creatures. 

Here’s what Paul writes: “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Today, if you’re holding on to some broken pieces from your past, hoping to fix them yourself, remember that God is still in the business of redemption. May you and I learn to surrender. God doesn’t want or need us to glue ourselves back together as if we’re some third-grade science projects. Instead, He carefully fuses the fragments with His grace. He puts the treasure of His good news within us. And His beauty shines through us—ordinary jars of clay—for His glory. 

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