Bodies… Broken… Beautiful.

I taught in a middle school… our geography teacher was loved and inspirational… our maths teacher took children each year to the Lake District… our technology teacher attracted lonely children to his workshop… our caretaker looked after our building wonderfully… our secretaries kept the school well-organised…

The Christian teaching ‘You are the body of Christ’ …one body, many parts …each individual, unique and vital …refers to the Church. At school we had a different body with many parts – each individual, unique and vital for the school.

Christian principles about ‘The body’ have universal application to any community.

Katie’s been through a messy divorce. Her ex-husband’s making life difficult for their teenage daughters… through counselling she realises that for many years he was abusing her… She’s now in a relationship with a man who’s treating her with respect and love…

Alan’s alone and lonely. He has a young son who he’s not seen for a year. He’s not spoken to his grown up daughter for some time; she’s recently had a daughter. Alan longs to see his grand-daughter… His daughter has been in touch…

Christian teaching says that we mend our broken relationship with God through confession, repentance, absolution, reconciliation, restoration… Yesterday I was thinking of broken human relationships.

Christian principles about mending broken relationships have universal application.

I was reminded of the charity ‘Kintsugi Hope’: ‘‘Kintsugi’ is a Japanese technique for repairing broken pottery with seams of gold. Repairing brokenness in this way makes the object unique, more beautiful, and more valuable than it was before…

The charity works with broken people: We want to see a world where mental and emotional health is understood and accepted, with safe and supportive communities for everyone to grow and flourish.’

Another universal Christian principle… Our scars aren’t to be hidden – they’re to be displayed, accepted and appreciated for their beauty.

Musing… universal Christian principles… body… we need each other; broken… relationships can be mended; beautiful… we’re valuable because of our unique scars.