A blank page, a new chapter, a fresh start – we associate these with positive emotions.

How hopeful it is when a new person is born, a couple says "I do", or a new challenge awaits!

But have you ever started out full of confidence and optimism, then hit the hard ground of reality? Disappointment. Failure. Guilt. Pain and tears. Broken relationships.

Life has left you with wounds and scars that will remain forever. The more years that pass, the more 'life garbage' accumulates. Sometimes you are literally left with a pile of broken pieces.

Jesus knows what life on earth is like. Life also means suffering. Brokenness. This world is not the way God created it. We too are not what we should have been. We have left the right path and fallen again and again. We are no longer immortal, but growing old and weak. We are vulnerable.

There is only one hope for our condition. The Bible calls it salvation. We can come to God as we are and know that He still loves us. All our mistakes don't change that, no matter what we've done. If we are honest with God and accept the gift of salvation, He promises that we can be made whole again.

I am fascinated by the way God heals us. If it were up to me, I would like to undo some things in my life. May God turn me into a new person and please just erase certain memories! Get rid of them! That's what we often do with our guilt and our shortcomings. We cover them up, hide them, deny them or compensate for them. But with God, redemption works differently.

In Japan there is a traditional method of repairing ceramics called Kintsugi. This technique is unique. Instead of gluing the shards back together as invisibly as possible, the gaps between them are reconnected with a highly visible seam.

Powdered gold and metals such as silver and platinum are used in the cement that holds the shards together. This not only leaves the flaw visible, it actually accentuates it! It is these golden seams that make Kintsugi ceramics so valuable. They become the defining feature of quality!

I believe that God does the same with us. He turns a 'wound' into a 'miracle'. The 'golden putty' of salvation through Jesus Christ makes our lives beautiful and whole. It becomes the defining characteristic of who we really are: redeemed children of God. A new life begins because we have been made whole again through Christ!

You can claim this redemption today by surrendering your life to Jesus. Redemption often comes quietly and unspectacularly, without an emotional high or a visible sign. Yet it changes everything, and from now on you can live with a new awareness: I am saved and whole!

It touches me to think that Jesus Himself still bears signs of His life on earth. He remains the 'Son of Man' who identifies with us and feels with us. Even now His hands are still clearly marked. He does not want to forget what happened then, because these wounds are a sign of His love for you and me.

"Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem's walls in ruins." (Isaiah 49:15-16 NLT).

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Bible texts for in-depth study:
Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 45:22; 53; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 33:11; 36:25-27; Mark 9:23-24; John 3:3-8, 16; Romans 3:21-26; 8:1-4, 14-17; 5:6-10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Galatians1:4; 4:4-7; Ephesians 2:4-10; Colossians 1:13-14; Titus 3:3-7; 1 Peter 1:18-19, 23; 2:21-22; 2 Peter 1:3-4