Hi everyone,
So my post this week is kinda going to go down a different path. Most of my stuff has had sort of a horse connection to it, but this week is going to have a different concept behind it. A little hobby that I have picked up on the side is refinishing furniture. It is very satisfying to take something that needs a transformation and make it useful and fresh again. There is something fun about looking at a piece of furniture and seeing beyond all the chipped paint and worn finish to the potential it has to be new again. I am currently working on a dresser that has had a lot done to it in the past. It has a couple of layers of paint, a broken drawer and looks pretty rough at first glance. Last night I was scraping away at it, slowly taking off the old paint and as I was sitting there thoroughly coated in paint chips I got this image of Jesus as a carpenter sitting and scraping away all the residue off with a smile on His face as if seeing something in this broken down object that no else could see. It was like He could see something underneath all the ugliness and He was intent on revealing it. That was of course when I realized that this image in my head was the picture of Jesus and us. We are like the dresser for lack of a better way to put it (so glamorous I know :) ...we have all these layers of past troubles, experiences, scars, sin, and filth that has coated our soul. The raw beauty underneath is covered up by all the mess. And then Jesus comes along and He looks at us. But instead of quickly glancing and walking on by like many people do, He stops and really sees us. He sees all the potential and the beauty behind the brokenness and what everyone else has forgotten or given up on. And He wants to take it and make it into a masterpiece. But now you have a choice to make. Will you allow Him to refinish you? When you allow Him to take over you have to realize that not everything is going to come easy. You have to let of go of that old "paint" and let Him peel back the layers. (Rom. 1:9, 1 Peter 2:1, Titus 3:3) In order to refinish something often times you have to scrape, strip, or sand down the old finish to the point where the bare, clean wood re-appears. Only then can you apply the new finish with complete success. Sometimes we just want God to "paint" over our old finish in hopes that it will be quicker, less work and less painful. But in the end, as I have found out, the old residue still over time creeps back through your new finish rendering it useless. In the same way our old habits and sin will creep back to the surface if we refuse to let God cleanse us from them completely. And sometimes that isn't fun. Sometimes parts of those layers just don't want to come off easily. They take time and extra care. But He never quits as long as we are willing and eventually we get back to the clean slate that is ready for the new. Our hearts and souls may be raw and exposed for Him to see yet He smiles because now He knows we're truly ready for His best. He begins to apply a new way of thinking for us with new habits, characteristics and layers of strength and faith built upon His Word. (Eph. 4:22-24, Gal. 5:22-23, 1 Peter 1:5-7, Col. 3:12-15) There is nothing like getting a piece of furniture sanded down and finally ready for the new and exciting plan for it. We become God's work of art as He creates us into what He intended us to be. We still have to be "touched up" from time to time, but He never stops seeing the beauty He created and He wants to show it off to the world. And at the end of this life hopefully we can stand before Him as His beautiful masterpiece.
Another quick little lesson I learned while refinishing a table was that we need to resist the urge to "fix" God's work. I struggled with this table because I could never seem to get the layers of paint on it to blend just perfectly and so I kept on slapping more paint on it, trying to fix it. Finally I realized something. How often do I try to fix what God is doing with me in my life? He is working on me and I am going along behind trying to perfect everything as if I know better. As if what He is doing isn't good enough. I mean everybody still doesn't love me and I am still not the life of the party. I think I'm doing God a favor but what I am actually doing is covering up the amazing work He is trying to do. We aren't going to be these always perfect human beings that grace the planet with our very existence. We will always have those little imperfections that poke through from time to time. But I think God knows that if we were these picture perfect people walking around all the time no one would see the real us. The dirty rotten sinners saved by the grace of God alone. And if we are these perfect human beings walking around like Pharisees how is this going to look to the broken who are still in need of Christ's craftmanship? How welcoming is that really? We have to let Him do the work and not try to tweak things to our liking. It, much like that table will only leave us frustrated and empty. Does this mean that we don't strive for excellence in our lives? No. But I think we need to discern the fine line between striving to be like Christ and allowing Him to work in us without taking a hold of the reins and saying I can be perfect exactly like Christ.
God wants to make us His pièce of résistance. He wants to take our old layers, and broken parts and make them new again. But first we have to let Him turn us into a clean slate so don't resist. We have to offer up our hearts, endure the struggles, keep the faith, and refuse to "fix" things ourselves. He will never leave us and He will always look at us and see the true potential that no one else sees. I also think it is a calling to see the world through His eyes. In the way I look at broken down, worn out furniture and see the opportunity to give it another chance, for it to be beautiful again, I need to view those broken around me the same way. Because we all have our layers that need to be chipped away. I need Jesus's eyes...smiling at what I see underneath and reaching out hand, and deciding to do something about it.
"And I am sure of this, that He who has began a good work in you will continue to perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6 (ESV)
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