Thursday I spent the day recreating things.  I felt almost embarrassingly giddy.  Just me in the girl cave taking things I’d found at second hand stores and bringing them back to life.  A day all to myself to do what I love.  Jesus and I work closely on these projects as He’s my mentor in all things creative.  We sing and dream and play.  And it’s glorious.

But my thrill goes back even a little further.  I LOVE going and hunting for the pieces that I will work on.  Looking for those things that are worn or broken and need a little love.  Things that need restoration and new life.  I seek them out like hidden treasure and get the deepest sense of satisfaction when I find them, knowing what I can do for them.  Their brokenness doesn’t scare me.  It inspires and motivates me.

I couldn’t help but think that that’s how Jesus feels with us.  He knew that we needed help.  Sin and pain had had its way with us.  We were worn and broken and in need of a Savior.  In need of restoration in our relationship with Him.  So He came to us.  He came to the second hand store of earth and sought us out.  His treasures.  He loved us so much that He was willing to do whatever it took to bring us home with Him.  So He paid the price by giving everything He was and had – His life – and bought us.

But He didn’t just buy us and leave us as we were.  He loved us too much to do that.  He saw our potential.  He saw what He could do with us and how He could transform us.  And so He began His work of recreating us into something new, His creative hands carefully bringing us back to life.   He restored us and our relationship with Him.  And He thrills at the thought of watching us become what we were created to be.

My excitement didn’t end with the finished products that I had made.  I took my restored treasures to the store that I stage to sell them – to pass them on to others.  And when I saw people pick those things up and enjoy them and then purchase them and take them home, my heart sang.  I hadn’t just created things of beauty.  I had created things of purpose to be used and enjoyed by others.

God doesn’t just rework us to make us a piece of art to be stared at and adored.  He has a plan for us.  To love Him and to love others.  We have purpose.  And when those people come along every single day whose lives we are able to touch, we can know that our Creator is smiling…

Philippians 1:6 – …being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:10 – For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.