Furniture Restoration
Published Apr 16, 2024
By Lisa Garnett
Have you ever felt like you can’t keep anything nice? That seems to be the story of my life. But I saw a magazine headline recently that said, “Restoration & Renewal,” which made me think about my house and furniture, but also my life.
I was cleaning and dusting the other day when I noticed how dinged-up and damaged our furniture is.
My husband and I have served in pastoral ministry since we were married. On small church pastor’s salaries we haven’t been able to afford to buy many new things. But we’ve been blessed by getting a lot of hand-me-downs from friends and family. When my mother moved into assisted living I was given coffee tables, dining room and bedroom furniture. I was so happy to get this because my parents always had good, quality furniture, and my mother was very particular about how she kept the furniture. She protected it, kept it out of the sun, used coasters, and covers and polish. It was in beautiful condition!
After a few years in my house, with five kids and four dogs, let’s just say, our furniture is no longer in beautiful condition. It has become “distressed.” It’s showing the wear and tear of hot wheel car races, a pumpkin that was left too long to ooze goo over the side of its plate, Polly Pockets and dinosaurs that were marching, bang! Bang! Bang! across the buffet, countless drinks spilled, and hot dishes set down without hotpads. Not to mention multiple u-haul moves.
The thing is, the furniture is dinged-up on the outside, but it’s still good, quality furniture. It could be restored or renovated. My sister is really good at this. She found an old upright piano that I’m sure was beautiful when it was built, but over time dirt and grime and the wear and tear turned it into a very “distressed” old instrument with a thick, blackened, cracked finish. She took the piano apart, stripped off all the old finish, and put on a beautiful new stain and varnish. It looks like a completely different instrument!
Life is “distressing.” We all feel the bumps, dings and knicks which can make us feel worn out, damaged and distressed, like an old piece of furniture.
In Colossians 3:9-11 Paul writes “seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have put on a new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator. In that renewal there is no distinction…but Christ is all in all!” And I can be “transformed by the renewing of my mind” (Romans 12:2).
Like a piece of furniture that has the old varnish stripped off, and a new coat of paint or varnish put on, we can have our lives transformed by allowing God to strip away the old, damaged self, and strip away the behaviors and beliefs that leave us in a state of distress. He is our Creator who can renew us and restore us to a right spirit. When the world is wearing us down, we have to turn to God for truth, and grace, healing and hope. He is all about restoration!
