Holiness And Wholeness

Owning Cornerstones has brought so much joy. We do own it now- we were able to pay off the mortgage last May. It was just before the Skoda died- so now we have monthly car payments instead. I used to deter Bob from spending with WHAM [We Have A Mortgage] now it is CRAP [Car Repayments Are Pending]
One of the joys is being able to lend our bungalow to others - family and friends frequently benefit from staying there. This does mean I often arrive and find unexpected things awaiting me. Sometimes a small thank you gift, other times a small breakage.
I really should have put Holeyness, rather than Holiness above- because last week I discovered a pair of very holey socks under one of the Cornerstones beds.I have washed them, and repaired them, using my trusty vintage darning mushroom. They are now neatly folded, ready to go back to Manchester.

Following on from Saturday's post about Bob restoring the Peace, JanF commented that it reminded her of 'that Japanese technique of repairing broken china with gold' 
So here's another of Bob's restoration projects- this is the large white pillar candle which is in the centre of our church Advent Wreath every Christmas. This  year, on Christmas morning, it got knocked over and cracked into three large pieces, and a few smaller pieces of wax flaked off too. Fortunately the wick was unbroken

Rather than replace it with another one from IKEA, Bob decided he would try and repair it. 
He used fresh wax from another candle, and gold paint - using the Japanese concept of Kintsugi which means 'golden repair'. I think the result is stunning. The candle is obviously damaged, but has a new beauty
Kintsugi is sometimes called 'the art of precious scars' I did some research and found this

"The kintsugi technique suggests many things. We shouldn’t throw away broken objects. When an object breaks, it doesn’t mean that it is no more useful. Its breakages can become valuable. We should try to repair things because sometimes in doing so we obtain more valuable objects. This is the essence of resilience. Each of us should look for a way to cope with traumatic events in a positive way, learn from negative experiences, take the best from them and convince ourselves that exactly these experiences make each person unique, precious."

I think this concept also fits in beautifully with the Christian idea of wholeness in Jesus.