“Behold, I Make All Things New”

I had seen this ugly piece of junk sitting on a friend’s porch for several weeks before I finally asked about it. “Are you planning on doing anything with that? How much do you want for it?” You see, every time I passed it by, I thought of all the different things that could be done to fix it up. I thought of all the different uses it could have. I had been driving around town that day looking for furniture and shelves for the girls’ room, and I knew that this old armoire could be put to use in there. My friend dismissed my offer to pay for it. “It was given to us,” she said. “We’ll probably never do anything with it. Go ahead, take it.”

My brother-in-law and husband were nice enough to go pick it up and move it into the house for me. I know they both thought it was ugly. I know that Bear wondered what I was possibly going to do with such a thing. But I had an image in my head of the final product, and I set about making this old piece of junk match the vision I had for it.

As I was painting, this verse kept echoing in my head “Behold, I make all things new.” (from one of my favorite Scripture passages, Revelation chapter 21.) It was exciting for me to transform this old piece of furniture into something new, useful, and pretty. I delighted in each brush stroke. I wondered if that’s similar to how God feels about me? Sometimes, I feel kind of like an old piece of furniture. Sometimes I feel old, not much good for anything, ugly, unwanted. Yet, I know that if I will just allow it, God can transform me into something new, beautiful, and useful. I wonder what I will look like when He is finished with me?

Here is what Gem’s new armoire looks like finished:

I spent about $15 on paint and used some leftover plywood for the shelves. The curtains are from an old lonely pillowcase (and the flower decorations are cut from the same pillowcase.)  Now Gem has drawers for her clothes and shelves to keep her toys organized!
She exclaimed “Oh, it’s beautiful, Mama!”