The Repair Shop
I am in the repair shop and the artist repairing me has extraordinary skill and devotion.
Did you know that God is in the repair business? You don’t expect a king to be into repair work but our King is. God is utterly committed to restoring us to our original design.
Hundreds of years ago, a boy called Joash became King of Israel and grew up to discover that God’s temple had been robbed and wrecked. He was horrified that God’s dwelling had become a ruin. So he gathered artists and craftsmen to repair it and we are told, “They rebuilt the temple of God according to its original design and strengthened it” (2 Chronicles 24:13).
Today, the King of Kings is repairing a new temple according to his original design. It’s not bricks and mortar. It’s you and me. But God was not content to dwell in bricks and mortar. Astonishingly, we were created to be the temple of the living God, to be the eternal home for his glory. But like that temple at the time of Joash, we too have been robbed and ruined by sin and Satan and so the King of Kings is restoring us.
Recently, I was introduced to The Repair Shop, a TV series. I am late to the party - there are now 261 episodes! It clearly captures a deep desire in us to mend the broken and it turns out that it isn’t usually a quick fix. My usual bodge effort with gaffer tape doesn’t do the job. In fact, both items that I saw mended had to be broken first. A little horse had been set wrong by a botched repair and had to be pulled apart and then welded together again. A clock had to be completely dismantled and painstakingly reassembled.
God’s original design for humanity was to make us in his image but disobedience wrecked that. God’s plans will not be thwarted and so a breaking and remaking was needed. First, Christ was broken to break that pattern of deeply ingrained disobedience. He chose to say, “Your will be done” and smashed the power of sin. Then, there was a great remaking as Christ burst from the grave to bring a new creation that mends us.
What did the risen Christ do next? He came to mend his broken disciples. I dearly love John’s account of how Jesus lovingly restores Peter. All Peter’s bravado is broken and then he is rebuilt with the promise that instead of shameful denial, next time, he will follow Christ to death. I love this promise – it tells us that our very point of failure can become a place of triumph, our disillusion and disappointment can rebuild to a stronger, surer hope.
Writing this, I feel a great conviction that this is true – God wants to repair us. It’s the story of the Bible. God is the potter who reforms the broken pot until it is “the way he wants it to be” (Jeremiah 18:4), the carpenter who breaks the heavy yoke and makes an easy yoke, the gardener who prunes to give life (John 15:1), the doctor who heals the sick (Mark 2:17), the Saviour who makes us whole (Luke 19:10).
I have found for me that as I get older, I am more and more aware that I need repair. It isn’t always comfy; sometimes it feels like a breaking – of selfishness and fear and insecurity – but worth it, because God’s promise is restoration. Our place of brokenness can become the place where we are restored and become even stronger than before. That was true for Peter and true for us.
What does Jesus ask of us? His two final words to Peter ask everything – “Follow me.”
