Dollhouse

This past weekend Hallie and I headed back to my childhood home to do some redecorating. My sweet uncle built me a huge Dollhouse when I was a young girl. It was well used in the 80's but has been sitting, collecting dust in a basement storeroom over the last two decades.

My mom rediscovered it when she was doing some basement cleaning and began to dream about restoring the old dollhouse for her granddaughters to use. She cleaned it off, reattached the roof, planned a redecorating weekend for the girls and got out the paint cans. Hallie, her cousin, my sister, my mom and I all worked to bring this dollhouse back to life. We even bought new furniture and flooring! It was so much fun and the final product was quite a new creation. It was full of color and has already been used happily by two sweet girls!

In an effort to see Him and know Him in all things I can't help but see a parallel with this dollhouse and life. I have a person in my life, so dear to me, who once knew the reality of being a new creation in Christ. He has tucked that relationship into a storeroom and the beauty of his relationship with Christ has been collecting dust. In the last year or so we have started the process of pulling that relationship out of the basement, dusting it off, cleaning it and looking for paint in God's Word to brighten the walls and start living as a new creation once again.

When a person's relationship with Christ is tucked away, for whatever reason, it sometimes takes grace-filled people filled with hope to help that person rediscover the love of Christ. Taking on the task of cleaning out the basement can seem overwhelming, but little by little things get cleaned up and God always illuminates and makes a way. It can take time in prayer and time in relationship with that person to bring their relationship with Christ back to life. It's not our job to save, but is our job to be grace-filled Christ followers willing to invest in the muck and gunk of other's lives in an effort to show them the love of Christ.

Do you have someone that needs this kind of encouragement? Don't lose hope. Pray. Be bold and courageous (Joshua 1:6). God can do all things.