If you know me, this will come as absolutely no surprise: I’m not very handy when it comes to fixing stuff. In fact, I’m so bad at it that someone who overheard my phone conversation with Wendy the other day actually laughed when they heard me tell The B99 that I was in the process of fixing our microwave! Literally, I got off the phone and they looked at me and asked (in a tone that mocked me more than they probably meant to), “You’re fixing a microwave???”
It made me realize just how funny it must have sounded. Me, the consummate un-handyman, saying out loud that I was fixing anything.
“Well,” I rephrased, “let’s just say I’m attempting to fix the microwave.” This seemed to sound much better to the person, and all was right in the world again.
I could go into all the details about how I fixed a microwave door that was sagging on its hinges because the original weld had broken, but that’s not the point of this post.
(I think I will add a post at some point explaining how a simple rivet was a cheaper solution than what all the other websites told me to do, and it might end up being as popular as the post on how I got my coffeemaker to stop making me what to kill myself. Another time, though.)
The point of this post is that now, every time I open and close the microwave door, my eye automatically goes to that one rivet and…I…
…smile.
I think about the fact that I fixed it. I think about how the fixed door makes Wendy (my better 99%) smile when she opens it. I think about, well, the power of redemption and how God must smile when He looks down on all of His children who were broken and now are being fixed.
Philippians 1:6 says that we can be “confident of this, that he who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” How excited does God get over broken sinners being healed through the redemptive work of Jesus? “He will take great delight in you…he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, emphasis added)
You and I are broken microwave doors, and Jesus is the rivet, and every time God looks at you or me, his eyes are drawn to Jesus, and He smiles. Our redemption brings him joy, and when we live our lives with the purpose of carrying that redemptive message to the broken world around us, we bring more joy to our Father’s heart.
That’s our purpose at The Gathering. We live near God in order to be sent to those far from Him, and that, in turn, brings a smile to his face and glory to his name. Walk with redemption in mind this week and let’s see God smile when we gather together with a bigger family this Sunday!
