“The hotter it gets,” the Preacher remarked the other day, the harder my wife wants to work.” He referred to our yard upgrades, and he’s right. I’m on a quest to complete something good.
I haven’t always been that way. Trees that needed pruning? Weeds that needed weeding? A shed roof in need of patching? Tomorrow would do—or next spring. Once, life seemed to have no finish line. I didn’t fret over uncompleted projects.
But time speeds up over sixty. Life’s finish line seems nearer now, and tomorrow is promised to no one.
A prairie climate provides only narrow corridors of warmth. In spring, as soon as the mercury reached “shirt sleeves”, we grabbed every possible opportunity to work outside. To finish our project list. My project list, the Preacher would say, eyes rolling.
But as every homeowner knows, home improvements are never complete. As soon as the sweet vision of “done” dangles within reach, something else, usually a new idea, leapfrogs forward, shoving the FINISHED sign back.
He’s very patient but I’m sure my ideas tire my poor man out. Another flower bed here. A support rail there. A fence here, a lilac bush over there, and one less cedar along the back wall. Oh, and let’s pick up another dozen bags of mulch, Hon. And can we remove this railway tie, between us? (His eyes glazed over. “NO.”) Our son-in-law and grandson moved the timber. (Living only five minutes away, our next generation has helped much. We are grateful.)
We redid the front porch recently. With help from several others we replaced six boards on the deck. Tore down the old rail. Put up a new one. Rick measured and drilled, I held and put screws in, then spent hours sanding off the old finish and oiling the old boards.
But all that time spent kneeling on our low deck, almost at eye level with the lawn, has made me realize something: Despite the Preacher’s careful attention, our front grass needs a total transplant. On the list it went.
Repairing, restoring, cleaning, patching and replacing—these chores are the price of proud ownership. Its privileges include the joy of seeing necessary jobs finished as well as possible, to bless as many people as possible. After all, of what purpose is a home, if not to enjoy and share?
No, our project lists will never be completed. But I’m comforted knowing that God has unfinished business too. Even greater works, already in progress. The difference, the glorious difference, is that God’s projects are eternal ones and his work will reach both completion and perfection.
What’s on God’s list? Among other things, the name of every follower of Christ. You. Me. No matter how frustrated we get about the brokenness and disrepair inside ourselves, we can trust our Saviour to keep working. Through every circumstance of our life, he continues making us new, growing in us the character and beautiful reflection of Jesus—if we let him.
“…He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion...” Philippians 1:6.
