I have always loved old houses. There’s just something about them. But I married a man who loved newer houses so our home was on the newer side.

But recently I had the experience of looking at an old house – twice in fact. The first time through was a cursory once over. But the second time, I began to dig a little deeper. The dining room particularly had my attention. It was the only room in the house without wood floors and so, it was only natural for the questions to begin swirling in my head.

The realtor replied to my questions explaining that she truly had no idea what lay hidden under the linoleum.  I asked permission to poke around a bit and discovered a sub floor had been placed down upon which the linoleum then was glued on top. And something inside of me felt like it had just hit the jackpot.

Old houses versus new houses. There’s much to think on when looking at homes and this week has made me think a lot:

1. God loves us – even in our brokenness. I am so grateful that He does not look at us as the sum of all that needs fixing. He does not let our brokenness determine his thoughts towards us. He doesn’t even have a list of all that needs to be renovated before He can live in us.
2. He comes to live in us just as we are. He knows the work, needing to be done, will take time. Our God takes the renovations carefully and thoughtfully, knowing that we can only take so much. He patiently does the transformation. He is slow to sand, hammer, and refinish so that He repairs and restores without further damage.
3. He sees us as a work in progress. He knows we will always need a bit of work. He is able to look beyond the broken, the worn, and ugly parts of our lives and see what we can one day be. The day the work is complete is the day He calls us home. Then and only then, before our God, will we be perfect.

All of this has made me realize how much I enjoy watching HGTV. The list of shows is endless –

This Old House,
Fixer Upper,
American Rehab, and
House Hunters Renovations.

This morning I am grateful our God is not a Flip or Flop sort of God. He moves in, stays the course, does the work, and resides in us for all of our days.

“There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the day Christ Jesus appears.” (Philippians 1:6, The Message)

Today I am joining … Let Us Grow and Faith ‘n Friends .