The Shenandoah Valley has some of the most scenic drives in the world. What a pleasure to enjoy this natural beauty during daily trips and errands. Too often, however, we get used to beauty and take it for granted.
Some items that sometimes spoil this frame are junk cars. Scattered around the valley are old vehicles in various stages of tin cancer. Many are overgrown with honeysuckle and other vegetation, but sometimes old paint shows through.
Many of them represent good intentions, however. Many people enjoy restoring these vintage automobiles to their former greatness. With an abundance of JC Whitney orders, body filler, and elbow grease, these rusty relics can be transformed into something that surpasses even their original splendor.
Some of these cars are also salvaged for parts. In some places, acres of wrecked automobiles are laid out in rows for backyard mechanics to search for and extract needed parts while paying the owner a fraction of what they could elsewhere.
These great dumps made me think of God’s desires for us. He travels the highways and back roads of our world to seek and save what is broken and useless. He pays our price, tows us and begins to restore us.
Ezekiel tells us that one of his first actions is to remove our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh. It forgives our past accidents, many of which were intentionally our fault, and removes our bumps.
It replaces our cables that have been eaten away by life’s squirrels and straightens our frames that were actually twisted at the factory. He realigns our thinking and synchronizes our souls with His distributor. With the same passion of a professional, he engages day after day in this company. He even installs an OnStar system so that we can communicate with him through his Holy Spirit.
His skill is not limited to our minds, however, as He is also skilled at repairing the coating of our emotions. He replaces the rotten scum and rusty springs of bitterness with joy and contentment. It even gives us a fresh coat of paint that shines through our facial expressions.
On Sundays, we drive through God’s Garages, many of which are topped with steeples and crosses. Instead of being automobile junkyards, we assemble collections of God’s work in various stages of restoration. Some older saints are nearing completion while some of us have just been rescued.
The beautiful truth is that it is not God’s will that any of us should be a bucket of rust. His heart is that every person be saved and restored. Regardless of what we may think, He considers none of us only good for our parts. There is not a single person beyond His ability to save and renew.
Another important factor is our cooperation with the master mechanic. Even if the old bangers don’t have the choice to be restored or not, we do it. We must choose to allow God to save and restore us. Many of us try to fix ourselves only to later realize our inability to fix our deepest flaws. Even with the multitude of self-help books available on YouTube, only God can lead us to the path to heaven and we must allow him to do so.
Finally, let us understand God’s purposes in this regard. Unlike many car enthusiasts, it is not God’s purpose to create showpieces. Each of us aims to glorify his restorer, but also to be involved in spreading his good news, grace and mercy to others. He wants to use us to help salvage and restore other rusty cars around us.
Every time you see a junk car by the road, remember that God wants to restore each of us and it is not His will that any rust and perish. He can restore each of us to do his work.
Blessings, George
George Bowers is the senior pastor of the church in Antioch and is the author of 16 books, including Blessings Volume 3, which is a collection of these articles. It is available from Four Star Printing, Shenandoah Stuff and Fort Valley Nursery. He can be contacted via www.georgebowersministries.com or gabowers@shentel.net.
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