Restoration

Restored? Or healed? I looked up both words in the dictionary and found that “restored” fits what the Lord is doing in my life. The Oxford dictionary defines restore as to “bring back to the original state by rebuilding, repairing, etc.” Over the years I found myself wanting to totally gut my home and start over. My foster brother and his wife bought a home a few years back and began tearing walls down, ripping out fixtures, demolishing the fireplace – they completely gutted the home. Then step by step they restored the home, not to it’s original beauty, but to a more beautiful and functional state. As I watched I compared the process to my own life. My eyes were opened to what God is doing to restore my broken heart. He is not restoring me to my original state. No, He is improving me way beyond my wildest dreams. That is what restoration is all about. The original frame is still there. He hasn’t removed all the tragic things in my life, but He has replaced the tragedies with invaluable lessons learned. With those lessons I can reach out to others who are seeking hope when there seems to be no hope. My prayer is as people read my words, that they will seek the only one who can restore a life that was damaged, almost beyond repair. But we all know that nothing is beyond repair when it comes to what God can do if we only allow Him.