For the past four days our house has been in a shambles as the painter ripped off wallpaper, sanded, spackled, and painted. Yesterday, there was light at the end of the tunnel. Only three rooms are still unfinished and the main living area is complete.
There is a world of difference between a professional paint job and our amateur paint jobs. Sadly, experience, training, and the proper tools really do make a difference. If you want to get a job done and done right, go to someone who knows what they are doing and have been doing it for a long time. Don't think you know better or could do just as well. You can't.
But God can. God has been in the business of creating a world worth living in since time began. He knows exactly what He is doing. Right now, we humans are in the midst of the mess we created. Meanwhile, God is hard at work, stripping away sin and evil, sanding our ugly edges, and preparing to cover it all anew with exquisite, spotless perfection. All we have to do is tell Him we want Him to enter our lives, and do whatever it takes. (Unlike my painter, God charges us nothing but our repentance and faith.)
Why it all had to become so ugly before being restored is a question I am struggling with, but it doesn't mean God doesn't deserve my trust. If I had assumed the terrible mess and disorder in our home three days ago could never lead to the beautiful room in the picture above, I would have fired the painter. But I didn't. I had to trust he would do what he promised he would do.
As I have been working on my sequel to Unlikely Friends, my characters are grappling with why they should trust God in the face of terrible situations. They are all trying to solve the problems of life on their own power, and find themselves woefully inadequate. They may not fully understand God and why He does what He does, but they do understand their own failings.
We all should understand how insufficient our own resources are. We cannot conquer the issues that destroy our families, our nations, our world, and ourselves. Try not to be jealous, or prideful, or angry, or bitter, or selfish for even one day. If you can, you are a far better person than I. I think most of us, if we are honest, will recognize we can't.
But God can. We need to turn to the expert in recreating what has become sullied and damaged, God promises we will be made new. Our sins though they be scarlet will be washed white as snow. What Satan meant for evil, God will transform to beauty. Even the agonizing angst many of us are suffering in choosing our next president from such imperfect choices is in God's capacity to transform to Good.
Worry less. Pray more. One day the entire world will be renewed and restored to the perfection that was intended since time began! I sure can't do it. But God can.
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2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Amen
ReplyDeleteThe parallel of wanting to stay forever in the newly renovated home is also worth noting.....
ReplyDeleteYep!
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