My husband Tom and I are in the midst of a major house remodel. We are refurbishing the kitchen, redesigning our hangout room into a bed sitting room and converting our current bedroom into a guest room. It is both exhilarating and exhausting. Along the way I find myself reflecting a lot on the repurposing and refurbishing God is doing in all our lives.
Before the remodel
Refurbishing.
We love watching house remodelling on T.V. but always get frustrated when the wreckers come in and destroy perfectly good cabinets. Our 70 year old cabinets, were good and sturdy even though the hinges were breaking and doors were falling to pieces. Now we have beautiful new doors and fresh veneer on the cabinets.
Question: How often I wonder do we want to come in with a sledge hammer to someone’s life, even to our own life, and totally demolish it it when God is saying no, no no, there is perfectly good structure here. All it needs is some sanding, polishing and refurbishing?
Preserving
One part of the kitchen we did not touch was the backsplash behind the counters which is made from tiles we purchased in Jerusalem on our honeymoon 24 years ago. They are made by Armenian Christians who have used the same patterns for hundreds of years. One of the challenges the remodellers faced was ripping out the old counter without breaking any of these tiles. Then they had to finding matching tiles for the new countertop. Not easy 24 years later.
Tiles are fragile. At took more work to preserve them, but now they stand out like new.
Question: Some things from the past need to be held on to. What aspects of your life and history are a little fragile yet need to be preserved? How would God like to enhance and highlight these so that they stand out more beautifully in your life?
New sink and backsplash
Repurposing
Our old counter tops were butcher’s block made from beautiful old maple wood. We have stashed them out in the garage with the hope that we can find someone to remake them into a table for our bed/sitting room when it is completed. The moment we decided to remove them I started thinking about ways I could repurpose them, and if I didn’t want them I knew that one of the construction workers also had his beady eyes on them knowing that with a little imagination and creativity they could be made beautiful again.
Question: Are there aspects of your life that needed to be repurposed? Perhaps you have found healing for past traumatic experiences. You have ripped them out and stashed away the raw materials, but is it time to take them out and repurpose them?
Recreating
When we were on vacation on Mayne Island Canada a couple of weeks ago, I found a bone on the beach. When I posted a photo on Instagram and Facebook it stimulated a lively discussion about its possible origins. Probably from a dolphin, it has obviously been bleached by the water and the sun for many years before it was washed up for me to find. It is the centrepoint of my current meditation garden photographed above.
As I see here contemplating it today the words of Ezekiel 37:5, 6 when the prophet sits in a valley of dry bones and God asks him: Son of man, do you think these bones can live? then says:
“Dry bones, I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. I will attach muscles and tendons to you, cause flesh to grow over them, and cover you with skin. I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. After this happens, you will know that I am the Eternal.”
Question: I have repurposed this bone, but in the renewal of all things what I wonder will God be able to create from it? When God once more breathes life into it what will the renewed, restored creature look like?
Sit quietly for a few minutes and think about your own life. Do you feel you are sitting in a valley of dry bones or somewhere like our old dilapidated kitchen?
- What do you think God wants to refurbish?
- What does God want to preserve?
- What does God want to repurpose?
- What does God want to give new life to and recreate?