Our Great Restorer

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)

Experts are everywhere today, especially in this television and publishing era. They talk and write a lot,  telling  us everything, some of  which we already know and some  that we aren’t keen on knowing.. But when we  want something done with a high degree of competence, we usually seek out an expert in that area.

I once read about  a set of experts I had never known existed,  perhaps because I never had any need for their services. Yet they are valuable, doing exceptionally competent work. They are art restorers, individuals who can take  a piece of  yellowed  centuries-old art work and make it look almost like new. When expensive and valued works  of art are damaged  by mold,  water from natural disaster, or even vandalism, the restorer goes to work relining, restretching, and repairing, with  awe-inspiring results. A  qualified restorer can save a work of art that seems danaged beyond help. One restorer commented that many people “make a mess of a painting”  when they attempt to do their own restoration work; sometimes they use a cleaner or an abrasive powder.

The  work that these art restorers do has  spiritual lessons. We are God’s wrkmanship, unfortunately often  damaged in life’s struggles. We need the help of our Creator-God to restore in us the glow of vibrant spiritual life.However, we’re prone to tinker with our lives,  trying to erase the results of our mistakes, attempting to clean up the mess ourselves. But whenever we become tarnished, we can turn over to the real expert Restorer the job of cleaning us up.  He is the  One who made us to begin with; He knows us well and is fully competent to do the job. What we need  to do  is  lay ourselves down in submission and humility and allow Him to work on us.

No one is beyond the help of our expert Restorer. Somsetimes we look at an individual who seems damages beyond repair and shake our heads, but if we read the history of God’s  church, we will  get a different attitude. There we will see the Restorer at work on a Saul of Tarsus, on the saints in the early church, especially at Corinth, and all the way down to our time, to include even our relatives and close friends. The expert Restorer has done a  marvelous work on them  and others and makes the process available to all even today.

Art restoration often takes time.  The work of restoring the  famous Sistine Chapel in Rome began in 1565 and has continued through centuries, even into the nineteen nineties. The restoration work under the expert  hand of Christ renews, repairs, and refurbishes us daily. The psalmist David said, “He restoreth my soul” (Psalm 23:3).  We have the privilege of daily access to  Christ’s  restorative grace.

Always,

Judith

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“Art washes away from the soul
      the dust of everyday life.”
Pablo Picasso