365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 186: Restorer

Restorer

"Restore us, LORD God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved." (Psalm 80:19 NIV)

My husband has some clients who are painstakingly restoring one of the historic houses in the tiny village that's home to his business.

This project epitomizes the phrase "labor of love": my husband's clients—a long-married couple—are giving the project and its end product back to the community for its use and enjoyment out of love for the people who have been their friends and neighbors. They are pouring into it the powerful combination of passion and backing.

In the process of restoring the house, workers are renewing, replacing, refurbishing, and rebuilding. Some old parts of the house are being discarded entirely in favor of better versions. (The windows, for instance.) Other elements, like the woodwork, are being kept but are being given new life. The benefactors' goal is to transform the house into the best authentic version of itself.

God, our Restorer, also works on us as a labor of the most profound kind of love. He starts with our souls and works outward. He loves who we are to begin with, so His goal is not to toss all that we are into the trash heap. His aim is to transform us into the best authentic version of ourselves: the version we can only be with the passion and backing of the Creator who knows all the rotting or cracked pieces of us that need to be replaced, along with the parts that are tarnished or dulled from neglect and are crying out for the hand of the Craftsman.

Sometimes, God takes us down to our studding...down to the foundations of our faith and relationship with Him. Sometimes He strips off our wallpaper...the false facades that look pretty in polite society but are covering up crumbling walls behind. Sometimes, He polishes up hidden treasures...strengths and talents we didn't even know we had hidden in our closets that, once gleaming, can bring joy to others.

As with most restoration projects, when we're in the middle of the middle of the middle of the thing, not only does it not look or feel like we're being made better, it appears to all the world like we're being destroyed. We might feel as though we were better off before we let God have His way with us. If you're raising your hand just now, I pray you'll clutch tightly to faith in your Restorer. I pray you won't bail on the project before it's completed...before you're completed. 

God sees the final masterpiece on the other side of  all His labor, and He knows that if we let Him finish His work on us, what will be left standing will be a house that is, in fact, His home.