For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NET)
Growing up I had a neighbor who him and his dad would restore older vehicles. And believe me, boy was it ever a process and a lot of hard work! Some of the vehicles they worked on didn't need much but for some it took years and years of work!! Rust all over the place to where paint wasn't visible, motor parts sometimes barely even recognizable due to the years of just sitting collecting rust. I can recount the hard hours he told me about when he would be sanding down metal to get it so that it would be ready for painting. Sparks arcing in every direction and water being thrown on the blade. I remember watching and helping occasionally place different parts together watching this bucket of rust become a beautiful master-pieces. They would shine and sparkle as though they had literally just rolled off the production line. Original lights to interior paneling just like it had been. And ya know.....we humans are a lot like those cars.
In our world today, we like to think that we are all doing pretty good. May have a couple dings from the bumps of life but in reality we are like those rust buckets. When we were first made we were shiny off the lot. We started cruising through life and along the way we actually got rocked. We have been t-boned, front and rear ended, and after awhile, we flat out give up and quit or give up because life is just to hard to deal with. But may I suggest to you an alternative: Jesus.
Jesus is the only one who is able to take our rust, if you will, and turn it into the masterpieces we were created to be. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God's masterpiece!! Think about that for a second. The GOD of the UNIVERSE made you his masterpiece!! You were shiny and beautiful coming from the factory that God made you from (I.e: the womb. See Jer 1:5) we are to be his witness to all nations. But what happens is we turn away from God. We decide that we know what's best for us or we let situations turn us away from God. But let me assure you that he knows what's going on.
Now, believe me when I say this because I've been there. I've been that rust bucket that sometimes couldn't even run anymore. I've told God that I've known better than he does and that I can handle this myself. And overtime that rust started to wear and weigh me down to where I couldn't even function in life properly. But when I went to Jesus and gave him my keys to my heart, he began a new work. That's where vs 8-9 come in. It is by grace that i am saved. And notice how it is by grace only. It's nothing that I can say or do but it is the grace of God alone that saves me. And once I did that that allowed me to be and begin the process of restoration. Trust me, Gods definitely put some hard hours Into refining me to who I am today, amidst my futile attempts to tell him what should be done. He knows me inside out. I'll say this, that anything I could have suggested weren't anywhere close to the much better plan that God had in mind.
So my point is this. We are all broke and broken in our own ways. Jesus is just waiting for us to come to us with our hearts so that he can restore you to the masterpiece that you were intended to be all along. God didn't make a mistake when he created you, it's just that through our humanity, we have allowed our masterpieces to be smudged, crushed and everything in between. My question to you is this: are you willing to allow Christ to come and restore you to who you were created to be. That there ladies and gents: is restoration at its finest; seeing Jesus move and work in people's lives. If you don't know him! I pray that you do. You won't regret it. If you do know Jesus, I pray that you "come back to the shop" so that he can get you to where he wants you.
