Restoration is the art of taking something old and making it new and useful again. Turn on your television and you will see a slew of shows devoted to restoration. But restoration isn’t just a home improvement show. The entire bible is about how God is moving us from the darkness of our sin, the prison we are confined to, into the light of His grace and forgiveness. Jesus was born to this world in order to restore our relationship with God, through His death on the cross. Through His sacrifice, we are made new. We are restored.

I grew up not knowing anything about my dad’s side of the family. He was adopted at birth. My grandmother wouldn’t talk about his adoption or how they came to be his parents. Just before my grandma died, my aunt gave me my dad’s adoption papers, which included the names of my dad’s parents. I was so excited to know them, but my searches were in vain, and I was never able to find out any information.  Fast forward 20 years, I have now started putting the puzzle of pieces together. I took a dna test and I have found a handful of cousins. The connection we share, the biological and the emotional, finding out where we came from and how we came to be, has been such a blessing! But God wasn’t finished with us. Just yesterday, I was given another nugget of information. We found a living sister to my dad and my cousin Chris talked to her. The curtain of mystery that has surrounded my past was cracked open a little more.

We learned that my biological grandmother was an alcoholic and struggled most of her life. But what the enemy used to destroy, God restored and made whole again. John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” In the last 20 years of her life, she was able to gain her sobriety and she accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior. Satan holds no power over those who trust in the Lord! Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (1 Corinthians 5:17)

The knowledge that someday I will be reunited with my biological grandmother in Heaven—Wow! God does move in miraculous ways. In this small way, I can hear the Spirit of God whispering to me, “I love you, my child. I have heard your heart begging for answers. Your family has been restored.”  His love is unconditional. He will not throw us aside when we stumble and fall. And through His blood, and not of our own efforts and works, we will find forgiveness of our sins and peace for all eternity. It’s not just about escaping the flames of punishment; it’s about spending eternity with Christ.

Restoration is defined as “the action of returning something to a former owner, place or condition”. But in Christ, we are not only restored, but we are recreated. God takes our original broken and burdened heart and makes it into something completely new. We are adopted into His family. We are made children of the Most High God. We no longer carry the stigma of our sins and mistakes; our restoration in Christ makes us brand new. We are complete.

-Amen