‘The Repair Shop’ has been a surprise hit for BBC One. But perhaps it’s not so surprising. Restoration is a powerful idea.
In the show, people bring old or broken items (usually with great sentimental value) to a skilled team of craftsmen. Incredibly, these experts are able to restore them, sometimes to a better condition than they were at the start. From music boxes to stopped clocks, a violin that survived a concentration camp to a treasured juke box… each object looks like junk, but to its owner it is priceless.
We carry stories too, though some are too painful to recount. And like these heirlooms, we’ve seen better days. Some of us feel neglected or forgotten, battered by life and broken by our experiences. We can barely remember what we’re here for or why it is matters. And we’ve lost hope of any restoration.
But we are here for a purpose and we do matter, more than we can ever imagine. The Lord of the universe created us with His own hands. The lips that spoke creation into being have called us ‘very good.’ We don’t need to make ourselves a name, because we bear His. We don’t need to prove ourselves because He has given us breath. Yes we are broken, but He is the master craftsman. He looks on us, the things he has made, and He loves us. He turns our brokenness into beauty and our stories into songs. One day He will restore us completely, but He is at work even now.
Today, whatever our situation and whatever our feelings, we are not useless or cast-off. We are His and we are loved. The master craftsman has written his name across our scars and this is what gives us worth. In His grace we are restored and in His eyes we are priceless.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9
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