Every once in a while I will walk around my house with tools from my tool box. I will grab a screw driver, a "finishing hammer," and an oil can just to tighten up loose screws, reseat unhinging hinges, and quiet extraneous noises. Occasionally the task is more than a simple adjustment. Sometimes there is a replacement or reconstruction needed. Once in a while the task exceeds my ability. I have to learn what I can and cannot fix. Still, the house won't do the repair itself. That's when I check the budget and then call a professional. This is part of being a good steward of the things that God has given to me.
I would watch my Grandfather do the same kind of thing when he visited our house. It was what he did. We did not take offense. It was his gift to us. In fact, I would follow him around and watch him fix items around his house and our house. He would show me how to restore things.
In all of this the word restore is operative.
I love the word restore. It is a gospel word. It is a mission word. The dictionary connects the first meaning as brining something back into existence. The next two are intriguing. 2. To bring back to an original condition: restore a building. See Synonyms at revive. 3. To put back in a former position.
Spiritually and, in glory, physically, that is exactly what God offers to us. Sin has made us something God never intended for his creation to be. In the garden of Eden, after the fall, God asks the question, "Adam, where art thou?" Adam realized that he had fallen. He needed restoration. We have fallen apart. Our Lord has put us back together by taking the fall for us. We do need rebuilding. We have been rebuilt in Christ. Sin has unhinged us. He has reseated us. Sin has killed us. He has revived us. We have been restored. He offers exactly that to all of His creation.
Acts 15:13-18 . . . James answered saying, "Brethren, listen to me. 14 "Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. 15 "With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 'AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, 17 SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,' 18 SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO.
This restoration, first promised to Adam, is for all people. It is our joy and delight to bring the restoration of Christ to the world. The memories of my Grandfather's restoration fix-it tours are for life. Those memories shape what I do. He and I and other such stewards have to make that tour around the house again and again. It is never a one time solution. But in Christ, the restoration is for eternity.
While we cannot fix the world with a flathead screw driver and oil can, we certainly have been called to bring a word of restoration to the world, to communities, to neighbors. That restoration is shaped in words of encouragement and hope, not judgment and condemnation. The restoration that Jesus offers is not a temporary solution. Instead, His restoration from cross is eternal, never needing to be addressed again.
In the meantime, I will get up and look for that which needs restoration.
