Rebuilding

God truly is the great craftsman. With the warming temperatures, I decided it is time to get the Goldwing fully fixed up. So, I have been hacking away at it taking bolts and screws out and sanding down the parts in order to get them repainted.

Above is a picture of the Goldwing with various parts and pieces scattered on the floor of the garage. It's amazing how big the pile gets and what a mess it makes when you start taking things apart. The statement is true that things get worse before they get better.

This Goldwing used to be a complete, well working machine. The paint matched and all the pieces were in the right place. Then, there was an accident, causing much damage to the vehicle. Fiberglass shattered, metal bent and paint chipped. Now, as the owner, I have the task of pulling off the bad parts and replacing them with new; taking a hammer and beating bars back into place; sanding and grinding pieces until they are ready to be painted and put back where they belong. One day, the Goldwing will look the way it did before, but it can be a long process.

While working on this project with my dad the past few days, I thought about humans and I think I understand Jeremiah's picture of the potter and the clay a little bit better, except in a different concept.

We (as a human race) were at one time right with God, created good and full of beauty. Then, there was an "accident" and we are now damaged and broken, yet God saw us as valuable enough to take us and work on us as a craftsman fixing, say, a motorcycle. Throughout our lives, God takes the broken pieces of us and rips them off. A few screws loose here; brackets to bend back in place there; sanding, scraping, bending. It, this thing we call life, can be a painful process where, during years of our lives, God may be bending us back into shape. He may be scraping dirt out of our flesh or he may be sanding scrapes and gouges off our hearts. It hurts, but the end product will be so much better. Each day, each year, piece by piece, we will be shined up more and more as God removes our bad parts and replaces them with shining beautiful pieces. In the end, we will all be full and complete again, the way God wants us to be; shining as we stand in the glory of the Son.

The best part is, we are all works in progress and we will all hit the "paint shop" at the same time. On that last day, when the trumpet sounds, and the sky rolls back and the Son of Man descends from the heavenly throne room, I picture him holding a paint gun, smiling and saying, "are you ready for your final clear coat?"