old junker

I had a friend, when I was 14 years old, who's dad bought him an old '41 Mercury coup that was sitting under a tree for at least 20 years. Most people would look at the old junker and have it hauled off to the junk yard. But, he saw something different. He saw what it could become. I would go over after school and on the weekends and helped him tear it down to the frame. Finally one day I asked him how long it would take to get it all finished and he said probably 3 or 4 years ...... After I heard that, my heart sunk. I was fully intending on cruising around in an awesome old car as soon as we turned 16.

I read Galatians 6 today and it touched on one of my favorite subjects - restoration. All to often when someone close to us trips up and falls, we are ready to write them off and move on with life. I think this is a sign that we have been hurt and don't want to be hurt again. However, it says in Galatians 6:1 "Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently...." This has not been my way in the past and I can see now how my willingness to convict and condemn probably ended up hurting them more in the long run. I guess that's why the next sentence says "....But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted."

I think it's important to realize that not only will God forgive people that fall, but, we need to be willing to forgive them too. Otherwise, it may end up dampering the restoration process and that's exactly the opposite of what we're doing here. But, it takes time for restoration and it takes seeing the person as God sees that person. So, is there someone you need to be forgiving?  Maybe you should start that restoration process, it will probably take some time and some hard work, but, in the end it's probably gonna be beautiful.