When I was a young girl, my parents would load me and my younger brother up on a hot weekend day and we would embark on an antiquing venture - sometime to an estate auction or sometimes just to cruise the Farm to Market roads across Texas looking for little "hole-in-the-wall" antique stops.
Each trip was an adventure - a real treat - because we NEVER knew what would be returning home with us in the back of that old station wagon or in the old SUV...but one thing would be for certain...every time my brother and I would look at each other and think ...
"Are you kidding me? WHY do they want to bring THAT home?!"
For evenings and weekends after those treasure hunting trips, we would see (and sometimes help) our parents restore those old and delapidated antique pieces that had been deemed "UGLY and UNWANTED" by me and my brother into beautiful and treasured pieces to adorn our home. Some pieces were weathered - as someone thought storing them in an old barn was a good idea - while others had been covered in layer after layer of "new" paint to meet the fancy of it's owner. However, each and every time - my parents wanted to strip away the layers of old chipped paint or cracking varnish and restore the piece to it original beauty. The same beauty that was created by the Master craftsman as his hands carved each piece, or joined each corner, fashioning it with tedious attention to detail.
As I think upon the scripture in Psalms 23:3 where the Psalmist tells us "He restores my soul...", I think of the loving work and time put into restoring each antique piece to its original beauty and functional use.
God desires to restore us in that same sense - and exploring the Hebrew meaning of the the word "restore" really made impact on my heart. Are you aware that the word restore in Hebrew means: to relieve, to build again, to bring home, to recover, to refresh, to bring back, to rescue?? Now THAT has impact!
Have you ever felt like parts of you are giving way? That the very fiber of your being is being shredded into scraps? That you are collapsing under the weight of life? Friend, if you are feeling broken down - in need of rebuilding - some relief - or even RESCUE . . . Come, Come to the One that is waiting to restore you - to what HE, the Master Creator, made you to be. Yield your heart to our Heavenly Father - who waits to Refresh You - RENEW YOU - and Build you up with His Arms of Love. He doesn't worry about your broken parts - or the parts that are failing - or need fix in' up (as we say in the South) - He longs to refresh you and bring you back to the life He meant you to live.
The Creator loves it when we spend time with Him and He longs to be the One we desire. I pray today, in the quiet moments, you meet the One who loves you in ways that cannot be measured.
Remember most of all - You are Treasured and Blessed!
