“O God, restore us And
cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.”-Psalm 80:3
My wife and I have been really enjoying the show FIXER UPPER. For those of you who have
not seen the show, it is focused on a couple, Chip and Joanna, who help people
find their next home. While they walk people through the process of choosing a
place, they also help them envision the possibilities of what the house could
be.
Of course, the people they have looking for homes usually
pick the home that needs a large amount of work and money, but they are working
with a budget that equals my annual salary so, whatever.
Anyway, Chip and Jo
(You know I watch them enough it’s like I’m on a nickname basis now), do a
crazy amount of work to turn the house into something new and outstanding. The
whole process, which normally involves a new island in the kitchen or a pergola,
is great to watch. It culminates with the big reveal and images of people
enjoying life in their new domain.
I wish I had the eyes and the construction skills they have,
but that’s why they do what they do and I do what I do. However, I love the
imagination and I get excited thinking about what I could do if I had the
budget and the ability to knock down a wall and build a new one.
Fixer Upper is a
great name for this show, but it is also a great title for us. Our lives are
not perfect. We all have those dark secrets we hold on to, but would never
reveal in fear of judgment. We have those flaws that we look at it as irreparable.
We see all of our scars from our past and cannot imagine there’s anything that
can be done to make us beautiful again, so we cover them up.
Yet, we have a God who sees us as fixer uppers.
He knows our
possibilities and our potential; He just needs us to allow ourselves to see
through His eyes.
The thing about fixer uppers is you need to be able to see
past what they look like now and envision what they can be in the future.
Some of us have already experienced the healing and work of
Jesus which has moved us along in our lives. We are no longer a fixer upper,
but a new house that needs a hinges tightened and windows cleaned every once in
a while, but we have new life.
However, there are some of us in the group just mentioned,
who have a hard time looking at the fixer upper group and envisioning what they
could be. We see them as damaged goods. We see them as people who need Jesus,
but who knows if they will ever get there. We separate ourselves from the fixer
uppers and rest in our new paint and only associate with those who are freshly
painted.
We forget that we once were fixer uppers. We forget that we
needed walls torn down and a new island put in. We forget that our backyard was
covered in weeds and God had to do a lot of yard work on us.
Fixer uppers are all around us. They’re created by God in
His image. They need to be told about the beauty they can experience. They need
to hear that what they are going through now or have experienced in the past is
not what defines them, but God has something greater imagined for them and that
can be their new reality.
They need people who have experienced the work to step
across their threshold and help them see the possibilities with fresh eyes.
Chip and Jo can see things in homes that I would never even
expect. God is the same way with everyone and everything in the world. He has
things in store for everyone, if they can only be shown the potential they
carry.
May we help others come to know Jesus. May we share our
experience as the new creation with those who need to hear they can be made new
too! May we see the things in our lives that need to be fixed by God and allow
Him to work.
Peace and blessings friends.
QUESTION: What is a
part of your life God needs to repaint, remodel, or tear down completely?
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