We are a people enthralled with DIY projects! Social media is filled with sites that show us how to take something old and make it into something new. I am amazed sometimes at the ideas people come up with to take an object from drab to fab. There are even TV channels dedicated to shows like Flip or Flop and Fixer Upper where an outdated, run-down home is reclaimed, restored and repurposed, making it beautiful again. In an hour’s time we are able to see the transformation take place and are wowed by the results.

Chip and Joanna Gaines, a couple out of Waco, Texas, and hosts of Fixer Upper, are the king and queen of restoring homes and repurposing the furnishings inside. While the “country” style they are known for is not my own, I certainly appreciate what they are able to do and create.

As I listened to the Easter message being preached at our church yesterday, it occurred to me that when Jesus becomes our Lord and Savior, God commences His very own DIY project in our lives.

We are RECLAIMED – Scripture tells us we were dead and lost in sin. Without Christ, God’s original plan for our lives is eroded and sin takes its toll, leaving us used up, tarnished and empty, much like some of the houses we see on the shows I’ve mentioned. But, like Chip and Joanna Gaines, God has a vision of what we can become, so He willing paid the price that we might be redeemed – RECLAIMED! What was lost is found and we were bought with the blood of Jesus Christ.

We are RESTORED – The process of renovation begins the moment we accept the price paid for us. Walls of separation are torn down, the old is removed, clutter cleared, everything that is not useful is taken away in order to clear the way for the new to come. Once demolition is complete, rebuilding can begin. What was left after the demolition is strengthened and polished. God begins to put new walls (boundaries) in place and re-define the “space” of our lives. He fills that space with light and new life.

We are REPURPOSED – Even the “junk” of our lives can be repurposed. Just like the Gaines’ find pieces that are sometimes rusty, dented, or weathered and turn them into pieces of “character” that decorate the walls of the homes they re-do, every difficult circumstance, painful experience or ugly reality, God can repurpose and turn into something beautiful. Those things are what make us who we are, so rather than throw them out entirely, God turns them into trophies of His grace and sets them on a shelf in order to displace His goodness in our lives. We are repurposed for HIS glory!

“For we (YOU) are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do…” (Ephesians 2:10). So, THAT is the Easter message. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again in order that you might be RECLAIMED, RESTORED, and REPURPOSED!