Restored

He will restore us in a very short time; he will heal us in a little while, so that we may live in his presence.

Hosea 6:2

How strange, apocalyptic, it must have been for the people who entered our home and boxed up all our belongings after the fire. Room by room, they picked up every salvageable item and placed it carefully in cardboard boxes to be cleaned and restored.

We were plucked up and removed from our life, as it were, in an instant.

We did not know that morning when we threw the covers back to face another day that we would not be in our home that night to snuggle down again into our comfortable beds. Or for many, many long nights months beyond.

We left our house lived-in. Dishes were on the table from a rushed after-school snack. Shoes scattered the front hall. Toothpaste tubes were tossed aside and towels on the bathroom floor.

What was it like for those helpers, stepping into the time capsule of our lives? Did they learn about our habits, good and bad? Did they see evidence of our faith as they packed over 1000 books, when they removed our commissioning certificates from the walls of the library? Did they wonder how we managed to have so many African drums?

Who did they imagine us to be as they touched our personal worldly possessions, carefully sorting and packaging them?

Could they see beyond the material things to the substance of who we are and Who we live for?

I sat awake by a hospital bed many miles away wondering these things. Wanting my commitment to Jesus to be so clear it could be read in the mess and the clutter of my life, sorted by people I’d never met. Hoping that even in disaster He would be plainly seen by others.

Tragedy swiftly and adeptly exposes us to the world for inspection.

In our case, we had no hiding place. I wanted to hide, but strangers were sorting through my private papers, my daughter’s toys, our dirty laundry piled high in the laundry room. I could not even go home to get my favorite pajamas.

One by one, as the restoration company sorted and cleaned my belongings, the Lord sorted and stripped me of caring about them. As experts examined the things damaged and the things that could be salvaged, sifting and organizing, the Lord examined me.

In the end, like my house, there was so much of my heart restored after the fire. 

We came home to a practically new house. In the meantime, I discovered I also had a new heart.

When I first heard the news that it was necessary for workers to enter my house and pack up all our things without my supervision, I made the decision to trust God entirely.

At the time, I did not have the energy or ability to worry and stress about the invasion of my privacy, whether or not they would safely handle our treasures, or the embarrassing messes they would find. I put up a high wall in my heart and refused to allow anxiety and fear to take hold. I had a singular focus: the survival of my child.

We can make a similar choice with our hearts.

We can make the decision to trust God entirely, refusing to allow anxiety and fear to take hold.

In times of great trial, the kind we think we may not survive, the hand of God is steadfastly sifting, sorting, intent on our #restoration. #Lent #Coronavirus Click To Tweet

In His infinite wisdom, He decides what should be restored and what must be discarded in our attitudes, our thoughts, and habits. He cleans us, He rebuilds us, He replaces the destroyed things with shiny, sparkling hope.

We are living in an unprecedented time in history, with a global pandemic uniting nations against a common enemy. Many are homebound as we wait to get our normal lives back. We are beginning to wonder if normal will ever really return.

Times of uncertainty and trial highlight the attitudes of our hearts like a Sharpie, making the essesnce of who we are stand out for the world to study.

There is only One I know who can be trusted to accurately examine and restore my heart, and He is God.

I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.

Jeremiah 17:10, NIV

As I check my daughter’s schoolwork and do daily physical therapy with my son, plan dinner and don a mask and gloves to go grocery shopping, I am inviting Jesus to examine me, sort my attitudes and priorities like so many boxes of precious clutter tucked away in the private spaces of my house. Like a promise of hope to come, spring is singing a song of renewal around me as it bursts forth in flower despite an unseen virus. I will trust the song of the Springtime. I will trust the Maker of the flowers who brings renewal every year without fail.

Are you being sifted and sorted this beautiful Lenten season? The weeks leading up to the restoration work of the Cross were sorting weeks. Hearts were under trial and emotions were high. Little did they know that in a very short while, the prophet Hosea’s words would ring true: He will restore us in a very short time; he will heal us in a little while, so that we may live in his presence (Hosea 6:2).

Lord, help me trust you entirely with my heart as you sift and sort… and renew me. Amen.

@audreycfrankhttp://www.twitter.com/audreycfrank