Just call me the Handyman Special...

Fixer-uper, Handyman Special, For Sale for Parts, Mechanic's dream...

These are all terms I avoid, neh, run away from when looking at houses or cars or pretty much any big purchase.

One time we purchased a car at an auction for about $400. It ran for us for about 4 months... then it got to the point that we no longer wanted to deal with it. When compared to the monthly depreciation cost of our current car, we got a deal. But I don't think I would ever get that kind of car again! I just want to have a car that runs as it is supposed to - and a house that keeps us warm and dry - without a lot of work...

However, during a recent sermon, I realized that I am a fixer-uper, and handyman special, mechanic's dream.

God knows all about my failings. He knows that I am unreliable. I will fail over and over again - but he keeps putting me up on the blocks, looks under my hood, or gets out the hammer, saw, wiring, plumbing, and fixed me up.

More then that - he is into restoration. I know a person who loves to take old cars and restore them to their original condition... and a couple who takes old homes and totally rebuilds them to their original, or their perception of what the original condition should have been. They are made like new.

That is me. God makes me like new... and keeps on making me like new over and over again.

And, as a result, instead of being discarded onto the rust heap, or boarded up, with a big "condemned sign", I can run, I can be inhabited, I can be used and become relied upon (someday)...

And, just to push the analogy a bit further...

Perhaps I'm not even a fixer up - perhaps all I'm good for is salvage material or spare parts...

Well I know that God can take the decent parts I have, make them even better, test them, refine them - and then fit them into his bigger and better car, house, etc. Maybe that is what he does with all of us. We become part of his bigger plan. He strips away the rust, mold, garbage, etc., takes what is good and makes it better and incorporates it into what is his.

Anyway, all those thoughts pretty much kept me busy for the rest of the sermon - so I don't really know what it was about!