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.

365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 185: Star

Star

“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel." (Numbers 24:17 NIV)

My husband and I are big fans of the TV game show "Jeopardy" (and yes, this tells you exactly how exciting we like life to be). The other night while we were watching, I learned a fascinating fact about the North Star: not only is it the brightest star in the Little Dipper, it is also the only star whose position does not change.

Other stars revolve around the North Celestial Pole, but the North Star maintains its position. It is a steadfast star...so steady, in fact, that at one time, sailors used it as a navigational tool.

Oh, friends, Jesus is our North Star. He does not move. He does not shift. He is consistent. And His position in relation to us never changes: He loves us.

"Love," wrote Shakespeare, "is not love which alters it when alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove: O no! It is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken; it is the star to every wandering bark whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."

Jesus, our Star and Best Love Divine, looked on the tempest of the sea and ordered it to be still. He looked on the tempest of sin and ordered it to be submissive. He looked on the tempest of death and ordered it to be silenced. He did all this because our worth is known to Him. We are, in fact, worth everything to Him.

When we have lost our bearings and can no longer tell up from down or east from west, we can look to Jesus. We can turn Scripture about Him over and over in our minds. We can sing songs that tell His story. We can talk to Him in prayer. We can fellowship with friends who lead us closer to Him.

Jesus is our ever-fixed mark. He is our steady star.

And He will lead us home.

365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 184: Shade

Shade

"The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand." (Psalm 121:5 NKJV)

My family and I live in a 109-year-old farmhouse on a tree-lined country road. In its original selling condition, the house was well-described as a "fixer-upper": it had almost no where to go but up.

The house has 109-year-old plumbing (or something close to it), which is why water pressure is not our home's area of giftedness. But it also has 109-year-old trees, which are absolutely a gift. You can buy plumbing, but you cannot buy 109-year-old trees. Our stately pines shade our house and make up significantly for its lack of central air. They are cooling and protective, and the shade they faithfully provide gives me a profound appreciation for God as the Shade at our right hand.

Psalm 121 is far from being the only example in His Word where God places Himself "at" our "right hand," so there must be something significant about it. With no offense intended toward the left-handers among us (my own sweet husband included), the right is the dominant, default hand for most people, so provision and protection there is most beneficial.

Think, too, of the reference to someone as our "right-hand man": this is someone we can count on, rely on, trust to be available in full supply when we need him—and all these are surely true of God our Shade. 

Yahweh is not a Shade we have to go searching for. Neither is He is some sliver of shade, like the lone tree everyone tries to park under in a blazing asphalt lot on a hot summer day. The cooling comfort this Shade provides is lush and lavish...a broad canopy that refreshes us and helps us get on with the tasks at hand (right or otherwise).

If life feels like it's beating down on you today, sweet friends, maybe this is a good time to sit in the Shade for awhile.