Restoration Hardware

{Res.tor.a.tion} .n.

The act of restoring; renewal, revivial or reestablishment.

The state or fact of being restored.

A return of something to it's former, original or normal condition.

Restitution of something taken away or lost.

Something that is restored as by renovating.

A putting back to a former position, dignity, ect.

Restoration.

I've been thinking alot about that word lately.

In fact it seems to be invading my thoughts

with such force, that I am having a hard time

thinking about much else.

Usually when this happens,

it means that it's time for me to pay attention

to the word or concept if I want to get any peace at all.

Otherwise, it will keep hounding me in my sleep

and in my fully conscious mind until I do.

Restoration.

The above definitions are glorious.

I was so pleased when I read them because

they open up for me such extraordinarily rich pictures

of what this word means.

When I think of the word restoration,

my mind immediately jumps to an old house

that we once called home.

The dilapidated New England farm house was built

high on a hill in Portsmouth, Rhode Island

in the 1890s.

A long time admirer of old houses full of stories,

I couldn't wait to move in and set up house

within her walls.

From the moment I laid eyes on her

I knew what she was supposed to be.

In her early years,

she must have sat magestically on that hill

overlooking the Narraganset Bay;

her windows reflecting the evening sun as it

dropped into the water after one last

glistening nod to the day.

But many years had gone by.

Battles had been fought on her grounds

and harsh weather weakend her foundations

and battered her frame.

Some improvements and updates

had been made through the years

but her glory days seemed a distant memory.

I loved her though.

I filled her porch full of flowers and

ran my fingers over the antique wooden banister that

lined her narrow stair case.

She was beautiful to me.

I polished her worn floors and hung pictures

on her scarred walls.

I knew that she was probably well beyond

what it would take in this economy to

bring her back to her former glory,

but I still saw it.

I overlooked her drafty windows and her

cracked driveway,

and I lived in her as if she were

the most magnificent mansion I had ever seen.

Someday, a restoration specialist

will see in her what I saw.

He will know exactly what to do.

He will knock down walls and strip wood.

He will tear down and build up.

She will be made new from the inside out.

He will skillfully pour into her exactly what she needs

and she will shine again.

What a beautiful concept restoration is!

I'm sure many of us can think of at least a dozen things in our

lives that are as battered and beaten

as my beloved New England house and

we know that without restoration,

they will crumble.

It could be our relationship with our husband or wife,

our kids, a parent or a friend, or maybe

it is that we need God to restore something in us,

our hope, our joy or our faith.

Maybe we've experienced some pain in our lives

and we have followed that pain down

destructive roads so far that we feel like

we can never be brought back to the beginning

and live as though we had made a different choice.

Restoration is a core need in all of our lives.

It is a need that only a skilled restoration specialist can fill.

Trying to do the job without one is like

slapping a coat of paint

on a peeling wall.

In all of our good intentioned trying,

we will never be able to successfully restore

anything without the necessary tools or hardware

that is needed to do the job right.

All our efforts amount to polished floors

and flowers on the porch

but only the healing hand of a specialist

can tear out the old and rebuild the new

in such a way that the former glory is restored

in grandiose splendor!

I know a restoration specialist if you are looking for one.

Even if you've already tried to rebuild yourself and things aren't going well,

He'll know exactly what to do.

He'll take your project in any condition.

Nothing is too far gone or too messed up for him.

He is a master renovator.

His address is 2 Cor 5:17-21

and Isaiah 43:18-19.

And best of all,

He's totally free!