It’s a painstaking job, but somebody’s got to do it. Restoration. Putting vessels back together again. Archaeologists in the lab work in what we call in Hebrew “rapa’ut” (rah-pah-OOT).
It’s exciting to be at an excavation where we uncover pottery jars that may be intact after hundreds or thousands of years. Some still contain fish skeletons, or olive pits, or the slight residue of perfume or makeup.
But usually, when the settlement was destroyed by war, earthquake, sandstorms, or abandonment for fairer fields, their juglets, jars, cooking pots, amphorae and bowls were either destroyed or requisitioned by others in the process. To find a complete vessel is special. Even in the course of digging, a pick axe may inadvertently hit a piece of pottery and… oops! It’s broken.
Happens.
(Not all archaeologists work with little paint brushes and toothpicks. You knew that, right?)
So, the majority of pieces found… are broken. Shattered. Sherds.
Kind of like people. Kind of like Humpty-Dumpty. Difficult to put back together again. But with a bit of patience and a steady hand, it’s doable.
The Lord must be good with puzzles because he’s good with restoration. The Hebrew word for healer is “rapha” which means to repair and to make whole. “…For I, the Lord, am your healer” (Exodus 15:26). He knows where all of the pieces fit! He makes new pieces to fill in where parts are missing—if you’ve ever seen a 2,000- or 4,000-year-old pottery jar that might be tan in color and then you see a white part that’s been filled-in.
That’s Jesus (Yeshua)… He gave himself… He became broken… to make us complete and whole again. The vessel doesn’t always appear seamless—there are a few cracks here or there—but it’s restored and able to be of service.
You are no longer broken. You are complete in him (Colossians 2:10).
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