Recently upon delivering a large amount of dining furniture back to a client after it had resided in our entryway well past its desired time frame, I shared with my boys the 'cash money' I had in my pocket from the work that had been done to it. To their young minds it was a fortune, when I mentioned that their daddy makes the same amount in less than a day, my middle tenderhearted boy responded, "but mama, for you it's a big deal."
That sweet boy was right, it really was a big deal.
Refinishing furniture is not just a hobby for me, it is an act that not only brings joy, but also a beautiful reminder of redemption, the redemption we have been given in Christ, the promise that we are constantly being made new.
There's a wide range of how these pieces start out. Some may look past the point of no return, with peeling veneer, cracked doors, and no hardware to be seen. Some are just downright ugly and at first glance you can't imagine something beautiful resulting in it, much less anything someone would desire to display in their home where another could see it. The garage always needs extra storage right? No one cares what things look like in there.
Then, there are those others, that at first glance, and even many glances after, look perfectly fine. The shape is good, there are no apparent cracks or blemishes, and the color is pleasing to the eye, but as they are used or walked past something is just not right. Appearance isn't everything, because even the most perfect looking pieces still might not quite fit in the area they are intended to be in or or go well with the other pieces around them.
No matter the category I place each piece in, there is the need for a caring touch, a change, or a little rearranging so that they are used to the best of their ability to benefit the one who owns them.
It may seem like a stretch to another, but in my mind it is now perfectly clear. Created in God's image, yet an imperfect creature in this fallen world, no matter how I appear from the outside whether to the point of no return or appearing to have it all together, He knows my potential. God sees my end goal, he has planned my possibilities and lovingly placed the Holy Spirit at work to strip, sand, paint, and seal my heart.
Before clarity hit, there was a mental struggle between the desire to make things beautifully, efficient and the risk of appearing as if I was just masking the mess inside. In a world where we are given the opportunity to just flaunt our perfection in front of others while we take all the dirty stuff out of the frame, appeared beauty can be damaging to the hearts of others instead of healing. Beauty was meant to be gazed upon, but beauty does not mean perfection. We need to let it all shine, dirt included! So how do I justify--not just justify--but show obedience to my creator, by making the broken, beautiful as far as to the tangibles here on earth?
You will know them by their fruit.
All the home depot trips, sanding dust, paint stained clothes, and broken fingernails are not a vain attempt at producing beauty, but the necessary side effects to gain the fruit produced by a finished piece. To let it serve a purpose to another in the way it was created to serve.
All the mess-ups, pitfalls, missteps, meltdowns, and do overs are also not vain attempts at producing beauty in us, but the necessary side effects to enable us to produce the fruit we were planted on earth to produce.
"Nothing is more important in your life than being God's tool to form a human soul." ~Paul David Tripp
We will be known by our fruit.
Reading these verses about fruit scattered through the gospel books has awoken my mind to recognize fruit in others, both the real characters through the bible stories whose actions were a direct result of the spirit indwelling within them, and in other quite tangible people walking on earth right in step with me. Just as recognizing good fruit can guide you to others who are revealing Good to others, fruit on the opposite side of the gauge can guide you to others who are in need, hearts that are drowning and need a friend and a little care.
In his commentary of James, NT Wright says, "Often that's all it takes, someone you trust says one or two sentences, and a door opens into a whole new world." Good fruit is not just pretty to look at, it is nourishing as well.
Refinishing furniture is not the secret to understanding God's way of revealing fruit in your life. We each have gifts given to us, most of us have several gifts, and each of them reveal the One from whom the gifts came and if they are being used fruit IS being produced. It is not something you have to figure out how to do on your own. A gardener can not attach fruit to the outside of a tree's branch, a gardener cares for the tree so that the fruit is able to grow as it was made to do. Likewise, we are not in charge of producing the fruit, we are in charge of cultivating the gifts that God uses to produce it.
I am praying for you to not only recognize your gifts and the fruit that is coming from them, but how to use those fruits to help another flourish. Pray for me.
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