Reconstruction. Restoration. Reclamation.

There are seasons of my life where God gives me words. Words that He speaks through circumstances, friends or devotions, but they always describe the work He's doing or wants to do in my life. This year, the word I've been hearing is "restoration." Looking back over the last few years of my life and the rocky places Tim and have navigated through-the rapids that threatened to overtake us with Sam's diagnosis, the wilderness we went through when we lost Tim's mom, the new challenges in our marriage that comes with being new parents-I feel like this is a season of restoring. Of God patching up those holes, of Him quenching that thirst, of Him not bringing our marriage back to what it was, but giving us a better, stronger, version of it. And He has shown us such GRACE and FAVOR by allowing us to miraculously get pregnant a 2nd time with our precious baby Sophia Lynn.

A more tangible example of restoration is our recent major water leak in our house that resulted in an entire wall (both upstairs and downstairs) getting damaged and taking out the stove, microwave and washer and dryer. Not the best things to be without, especially with a baby and a toddler to take care of. A connector hose had broken on the washer and had been leaking water into the walls, silently damaging the sheet rock, sub floors, and growing mold. We had no idea.

I think it's like that in our spiritual lives. There are silent, private sins, deep conditions of the heart or even a weak faith that can't be seen on the outside but are doing substantial damage to our souls. Day by day they drip, cause sickness and disease and are "taking out" essential blessings that allow us to thrive as Christians. But just as the water leak in our home started to show itself--dripping paint near the ceiling, sopping wet carpet in our master closet--so do the sins hiding beneath the surface start to leak out of our seemingly polished exteriors.

A restoration team came in and spent over a week demolishing the damaged cabinets, sheet rock, floors and treated the mold. What we were left with are bare bones of the studs used to build our house. The silver lining is that we now have a completely new kitchen out of it. It is being rebuilt into something even better than it was before, taken from the "ashes" and restored.

Similarly, I think the Lord uses those times of tearing our lives "down to the studs" to deep clean what's been going on for years and to do His work in changing us. It leaves us exposed, vulnerable and hurting, but He will never leave us this way. His plan is to restore and build us up better than we were before. Just like new wine shouldn't go into old wineskins (Matthew 9:17), neither will the Lord build something new on an weak, unstable foundation. He wipes the slate clean and builds us from the bottom up, developing our character, refining us to reflect Him in the finished product: new, clean and reclaimed.

Reconstruction: A thing that has been rebuilt after being destroyed
Restoration: A restoring to an unimpaired or improved condition
Reclamation: To rescue from an undesirable state; to regain possession of

"So I will restore to you to years that the swarming locust has eaten..." Joel 2:25

"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." I Peter 5:10

"Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up." Hosea 6:1