Warning: Restoration in Process

No one could see what Tim saw in that old house. They saw brokenness; he saw potential. They saw chipped paint, falling gutters, and a leaky roof–not to mention dirt everywhere and enough cobwebs to catch an ant farm. He saw the builder’s original intent–and what that house could one day be.

Others couldn’t understand why Tim worked hour after hour, nailing in broken pieces, sanding down the chipped paint. His hands often got splinters or ached from his labors, but he didn’t stop. He spent lots of money, but he didn’t care. He saw not what was, but what would be–and that house had been made to shine.

You see, Tim knew something the others didn’t. He knew what the house had been built to be…because he’d built it. A terrible disaster had destroyed the home many years back, but Tim wouldn’t give up on that old house.

It took years–one could even say a lifetime–but one day others saw it too. No one could recognize in the elegant mansion the once forsaken home.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6 (ESV)

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

2 Corinthians 5:16 (ESV)

Thought: God is in the business of restoring what sin has ruined. In Christ, we’re new creations (2 Cor. 5:16), but we still often look like a messed up version of what God intended. Lord, give us eyes to see one another as You see them.