Restoration

My journey to work used to take me through the village of Charlesworth, a small village on the edge of Derbyshire. As I turned right off the main road and descended the hill, which was a short cut to the motorway, I passed a pair of bungalows. One neat and tidy and the other having seen better days. The roof tiles had slipped, the render was cracked, the paint was peeling, and the window frames were rotten, bare wood. Weeds grew through the concrete drive, which did at least add some colour through spring and summer. It was a sad sight and I wondered what its history was.
Then, one day, as I passed on my way home, builders had moved in. Over the next few days the bungalow was demolished carefully and some bits were neatly stacked up while other bits were taken away as rubble. I almost missed that bungalow.
But that wasn’t the end. It wasn’t long before there were signs of activity again and slowly, it seemed, the walls were rebuilt, not only that but the bungalow became a house. The roof was completed using the same tiles as the old property, clean new window frames were added and a bright new front door. The drive was re-laid, the old garden wall rebuilt and soon a beautiful new home stood in the place of the old bungalow. The first summer, and each year after, the garden was a riot of colour.
I had watched this transformation take place and it had become a twice daily sermon. You see, I had been going through a very difficult time and had become aware of the bungalow because it was a picture of how I was feeling. When the work first began and the building was dismantled it suited me to see it as an allegory as to what was happening in my life. As the walls went up I started to see that God wanted to rebuild me and I realised one important fact; the house was rebuilt on the same foundations.
God showed me that no matter what was going on in my life, whether I felt broken and dismantled, he was in control because my foundations were deeply in Him. They were solid and secure. He would rebuild me in to a stronger person as long as I let Him, trusted Him and kept my foundations strong; that was my responsibility, the rest was up to Him.
As God rebuilt and healed parts of my life I had a visual aid twice a day as I passed that bungalow. For over 9 years I had a reminder of what God could, and had done and I gave thanks and was blessed.
No matter what we are going through, no matter how bad things can seem, we have a God who cares and can build us up if we keep our foundations strong in Him.

Luke 6:47-49
I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.

Jane