Under Construction

“Even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation, faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine.” I Peter 1:6-7 (The Message)

What a mess. Most our furniture and rugs now make their home in the garage and drop cloths cover the couch, dining room table, and china cabinets.  All because we’re renovating our family room and repainting the dining room. We eat meals on TV trays we’ve set up in the office.  Certainly not ideal, but it’ll do for now.

 

The walls in the living and dining room sport various colors of paint as we decide what will look best. To change the fireplace, the stones surrounding the firebox have been removed, leaving about 6 inches of bare wall on each side. Tomorrow the workers will lower the firebox  before putting new bricks in place.

The good news is that it’s temporary.  In a few weeks, both rooms will look much better than in their current or original state. The dust will be gone, the furniture and rugs back in their rightful places, and the pictures rehung.  And the room will look fresh and new. Keeping this in mind makes it easier to handle the inconveniences in the meantime. 

It seems to me this reflects the condition of our lives from time to time.  We get used to our daily routine until something shakes things up. Whether it’s a job change, medical emergency, or something else, things happen that make us have to adjust. 

God is in the reconstruction business in our lives. And when we’re under construction, it can get messy, as parts of our lives are rearranged, others discarded. Life may be unpleasant in the interim, but He has an end goal in mind. When He’s done, the result will be much better than the original.  But we have to endure the process.