That’s my new clock you see in the picture. I purchased it at the local art gallery. Isn’t it beautiful? And you know what? It started life as a vinyl record. 

Which is a wonderful reminder of God’s love for us. After he has restored us, He can take the brokenness, the outdatedness, the feelings of uselessness, and repurpose it for his good. We see this in the Old Testament in the story about the potter in Jeremiah 18:3-4:

“So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.  But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”

We see it again in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

God is relentless. 

First in his pursuit of us:

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?" Matthew 18:12

Then in his justification of us:

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Then in his sanctification of us. 

“The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son [and daughter].” Hebrews 12:6

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

NEVER — EVER— believe God is through with you. Never feel that your usefulness is over. Instead, be excited. Look forward to what God has in store for you next. 

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

I blame my cousin. She introduced me to this show and now I am hooked. It’s called Restored, and it centers around an architectural preservationist who goes around restoring old homes to the way they were intended to look.

I am fascinated with the show. First of all, by the knowledge the host has of all the various architectural periods and then by his willingness, once given the go-ahead by the owners, to start ripping out what doesn’t belong and restoring the home to its original glory. 

It is amazing what people will do to their houses all in the name of modernization. The mishmash of styles can create a cacophony for the eyes. But Brett Waterman makes no bones about what does and doesn’t belong and what needs to be done, then does his best to direct the decisions of the owners. 

And if they listen to him? Beautiful homes. Appropriate landscaping. Gorgeous woodwork. Stunning features. A home that now stands out because it has been restored to its original glory.

God is in the restoration business as well and we are his subjects. Sin and questionable decisions have marred our lives and broken our souls and spirit. God promises to restore those if we give our lives to him.

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” I Peter 5:10.

“He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” Psalm 23:3.

“'But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’declares the Lord” Jeremiah 30:17.

But we must give God permission to go in and strip away the unnecessary, the social “modernizations,” the personal choices, and restore us to wholeness. We must relinquish our ownership and turn the decisions over to Him. Only then will our intended beauty reappear.

I love art. One of my favorite mediums is stained glass. Over the years, I have collected many pieces and have them on display on my patio. And do you know why stained glass is so expensive and so beautiful?

First, because of the variety of colors and the amount of work that goes into cutting and shaping each piece. It is a time-intensive medium.  It take time to select each color and texture not only to fit that particular portion of the total story but also to complement those pieces around it. Also, the more pieces in a work of stained glass, and the smaller those pieces, the more complicated it is to create and therefore the more expensive.

Second, even though we can appreciate the craftsmanship of a stained glass anywhere, it was designed for one purpose. To have light to penetrate it. Only when light shines through this work of art does its true beauty resonate. 

Let this be a lesson for all of us.

I know we all want simple, uncomplicated, and easy lives—although we will gladly take all the high points, such as promotions, victories, marriages, etc. What we don’t want is to have to deal with difficult relationships, health issues, financial problems, or any other complication or disruption. But life does not allow us that, and as hard as this is to say and hear, a beautiful work of art uses both the light and the dark colors. All light colors can be pretty, but it doesn’t have the depth and dimension of one with a broader palette.

God is not only the master potter but the master artist too. Every piece of “glass” in our life was carefully chosen (or allowed) and then carefully cut, smoothed, and fitted into the whole picture. No matter how small. Not only were we wonderfully created our lives are wonderfully made.

But there is one more important piece to remember. The light.  

The Bible tells us that without the saving knowledge of Jesus and his sacrifice to redeem us, we are left in darkness. And as such we will never be able to make out what our life is all about. We know about all the individual pieces but we can’t see how they all fit together.

But Jesus is the light. With him shining through the disparate pieces of our lives — both the bright spots and the dark ones — we can see the entire piece and the beauty of our life—in him—shines through. 

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Ephesians 5:8a

As we go through our days and experience the ups and downs that is life, let us remember that these pieces do all go together to create something beautiful if we will just let God’s redeeming light shine through us. 

Today we, as a nation, turn 250 years old—young in the world of nations.

Iran and Egypt go back to 3200 BCE (still BC in my book) and 3100 BCE respectively while Japan has seen the longest unbroken imperial lineage dating back to 660 BCE. At least we have Australia beat. They’re only 125 years old.

But 250 years is a long time in the world of democracies. In fact, the U.S. is the oldest continuous democracy in the world—the Great Experiment—the first nation to be founded on “Enlightenment ideals” rather than a “monarchy, dynasty, or shared ethnicity.”

But each generation worries that our nation might not survive. Laura Bush addressed this when she said “Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals—yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us, and it is each generation’s responsibility to continue that work.”

It is good for us to remember the work of our forefathers and -mothers and our responsibility to our country and its ideals, but it is far better to remember our duty to God and what He calls us as a nation to be and do-- and the reminder that God not only establishes nations but also judges and destroys them.

A nation is supposed to establish justice, protect the vulnerable, and maintain order (Romans 13:1-7). They are to protect the weak (Proverbs 31:8). They are to act with righteousness (Micah 6:8).

But above all, nations are responsible to God. 

"Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth" (Daniel 4:17)

And in Jeremiah 18:7-10 we find the vivid reminder of both God’s forgiveness and his judgment:

If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

So let’s do our part. Let’s do as we are commanded to do and pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2) and live godly lives (1 Peter 2: 11-17).

Our nation’s health depends on it.