I grew up in a military family. For much of my childhood, we lived far from our extended family. When I was about ten years old, we moved to Fayetteville, NC, which was about an hour and a half to two hours from where my parents grew up and where my extended family lived. One of my favorite places to go was to my Uncle John’s store. Uncle John had an antique furniture store in an old building. For me, it was a maze of mystery filled with rows upon rows of furniture and other oddities, most of which I could not see over. As a child, it was an adventure.

Now that I am older, I realize that I did not appreciate all the hard work my Uncle John did. He went all over the country finding old pieces of furniture that often times people threw away. Some of it was damaged, all of it was worn with age. But my uncle was able to take the time to repair and restore old furniture until it became valuable again. It was hard work and as I child I missed the true wonder of his store. I wish I could have gone to learn from him how to bring about the wonderful restorations he did, but unfortunately, years late a tornado went through the area and destroyed his store.

The good news is that we can all be a part of wonderful restorations. When a person becomes a Christian, they become a new creation in Christ. God begins the process of restoring each of us to what He created us to be. The good news is that at the moment we are saved, God sees us as saints because He sees Christ in us. As we grow as believers, what God sees us on the inside begins to work its way out in the way we live. We can be a part of God’s restoration by telling people about Jesus and when they are saved by helping them grow in the Lord.