CREATION. RESTORATION.

​I like to be creative. I enjoy stories, movies, and brainstorming. As a kid I always wanted to invent something cool just for the sake of creating itself. Today I'd like to invent something just for the revenue (times have changed, ha). Either way, I like creation.

Now I'm referring to the process of creation, but I also enjoy the reality of creation as well. I love that God made everything I see, taste, and feel out of nothing. Where there was no reality, God made it. Where there were no systems by which to govern a newly created reality, God developed it. Where there was no growth or development possible, God implemented the ability for His creation to grow, reproduce, and change. In essence, God's creation then had creative powers. It's truly stunning to think about the depth and breadth of God's creation work.

What I don't like is restoration. I don't have the urge to take a beat up 1950s roadster and make it road-worthy. I have no desire to sand and stain hardwood floors, restoring them to a prior beauty. There has never been a moment in my life when I looked at a fixer-upper house and with joy thought, "let's make this happen." Plain and simple, I'm not into restoration.

I like creation but not restoration. However, I'm very glad that my Jesus enjoys both. 

Yes, Jesus sat with the Father and Spirit to design the world in which we live, down to the very vacuum-like void our souls feel without Him. Yes, He, along with all of the creative power of the Trinity, breathed everything into being for His pleasure and glory. However, it's also important to understand that our great God takes joy in restoration as well.

He sees the cracked and broken pieces of our lives and proceeds to glue them together into a wonderful mosaic. God rejoices in the moments when the outcast, rebellious, and the down-trodden find new hope in Him. Whenever a soul is raised out of the ashes of sinfulness and into the beauty of redemption, I believe God smiles at His handiwork. 

I know without a doubt that my Jesus loves to redeem and restore my life-- not to a prior condition but a new-creation condition. I'm not returned to a less sinful state. I'm not reset to a time when I had more peace. No, the restoration of my soul is actually a work of new creation as well. I'm being brought to place of sinlessness like Jesus. I'm being given the very peace of Jesus' peace and not a flat, flesh-based hope. 

Until the work of glorification is complete in my life, then I will be both Jesus' creative and redemptive work. All that to say, you may need to be patient with me. I'm still under construction.