i LOVE restoring old furniture. there are few things better than finding something old and scratched up, something someone else deems as useless, and making it new. i get somewhat of a high (for lack of a better term) haggling prices with people. i love a good bargain. and free? well, thats the pinnacle of a good deal!
we just moved into a new house. we are renting and therefore, cannot make huge changes to anything on the house. my husband breaths a sigh of relief. so i go hunting for cheap finds. desks, end tables, chests, really ANYthing made of wood. anything that i can sand and paint and possibly distress. want to know what my husband said to me just last night? "you know, not everything has to be chalk painted." the audacity! i love chalk paint because even if the piece of furniture has dents and scratches, you can slap on a coat of that stuff and it automatically gives it character. of course, i dont keep everything i restore. i sell it. thus, keeping my husband off my back. for a few days anyway. until i get more things to fill up his garage. i would like to say he will thank me one day. i dont think this is true. its just something in our marriage that he will lovingly deal with an i will gratefully keep on doing. thus is love.
ive spent the last week on a number of projects. i transformed an old mirror that i found by a goodwill bin into a brilliant chalkboard. i purchased and old filing cabinet, dented and bruised, and painted it. because paint covers a multitude of sins. i had an old chest that someone was giving away. it was pretty scratched up from little kids hands and toys. i chalk painted and distressed it and it is now a fantastic little piece, once again. as i spent the last week sanding, painting, cleaning, stripping, changing these pieces into something new. something better. i couldnt help but think of God. He is the God of restoration, after all.
i thought of how He restores each and everyone of us to Himself. the process of this. but oh the differences between His process and mine. you see, God never haggled with sin. He never once tried to lower the price. instead, He paid the highest price that He possibly could. sentencing His own Son to the worst death. to cover our sins for good. He doesnt just find the easiest way to cover up the blemishes. He gets rid of them for good. for His good. and i will say, there is always a point that i come to when i second guess myself. am i doing this right? should i have sanded more? should i have left well enough alone? maybe this was just too big a project. God never doubts. He sees every step before we have taken it. every breath before life was breathed into us. He knows exactly what He is doing. and while i go about trying to find the cheapest pieces, He shows no favoritism. for we are all on equal playing field. sinners. the piece no one wants. the scratches that are too deep for anyone to heal. broken legs. broken hearts. hinges barely in tact, set out on the curb. marked as "free before trash pickup." but God, in the grandest of gestures, doesnt just wipe us off and slap a new coat of paint on us in hopes to cover our past indiscretions. instead, He makes us new. completely new. the wiping off of the dust feels nice. its been a long time since we have felt this kindness. but then the sanding starts. stripping off all that we allowed this world to put on. all the words we took as our own skin. and it hurts. the sandpaper is rough and it feels as though we just arent cut out for shiny. and just when we are about to give up, it stops. we can feel the smooth paint bristles. the beginning of a masterpiece. the layers of His love. the fullness of His grace. because just as a thrift store desk doesnt earn my approval, neither do we earn His. but He gives it anyway. the God of the universe reaches down from heavenly heights and makes all things new. He makes us new.
for most of us that accept His love, resting fully in His grace, walking closely to Him daily. we look in the mirror and can hardly see a glimmer of who we were before.
Revelation 21:5 ...I am making all things new!...
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation...
Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I am doing a new thing...
thank you Jesus.
