Grime and Beauty

The price tag on the beat up old chair read $5. It had no seat. The wood was scratched, dirty, and banged up from misuse. 

I thought...

I can fix this. It just needs some sandpaper, stain, polish. A seat! 

Well, I thought I could. 

About half way through sanding, then adding new stain, I stopped. The wood now felt smooth to my touch. The grain... oh, the beauty!

And I wondered...

When we come to God, do we look like the worthless chair? Probably. 

Something the world has cast aside for trash. Yet He takes us and lovingly smooths down the rough places, cleans away the dirt and gives us a new finish. Or a new life. A new look. A new outlook. Soon, everything changes. 

Value. Appreciation. Appearance. Functionality. 

The chair did nothing. I did all the work. So does God. It's not by us cleaning ourselves up, but His skilled hand working in us. 

The chair...? Well, look for yourselves. 



For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Eph. 2:8-10 (NIV)