This week I bought my first big girl office desk. I've been using an old school 1980's styled teachers desk and it's got to go. I've been looking in thrift stores to furniture shops all across Atlanta for the last four months looking for exactly what I want. I found it last Wednesday at Way Point Thrift store and I ended up being able to buy it for - get this folks - $24.50. Seriously!
So I brought this beautiful piece home and I've been staring at it for 5 days now, waiting until I'll have the time to get my hands dirty with it. It's not that it needs so much repair, its just picked up drink stains, marker spots, and scratches. It's a light wood but I want it to be espresso/ebony black.
Yesterday I spend the evening stripping it down. My father laughs that his daughter who is a pastor had to go out and buy a stripper. Come on dad, is that the best you've got? I thought about how much junk we pick up living in this world. The stains we encounter, the marks...The chemical reaction of the stripper to the wood was incredible to watch. Easily, I was able to scrap away the stains...but the surface of the wood was still rough.
So this morning I pulled out dad's handy dandy electric sander and went to work. I spent a little over an hour sanding it down to perfection. The wood shines again, as though the table was just built. It's surface is smooth and ready for the new coat of stain.
Then I thought about Jesus and how He was a master carpenter and still is very much so. He finds us in the junk bin of a thrift store, pulls us home, strips away the marks of the world, continues to sand us and shape us into our full potential, and restores us to all that we were supposed to be in the beginning. He makes us useful again. Restores purpose. Restores beauty.
Wood Desk: $24.50
Stain & Stripper: $11.76
Realization of Christ's love all over again: Priceless
