Turn on your television, and you will find a home improvement or makeover show. Renovation is the going thing. People are updating, creating, repairing, and they are telling everyone else about it.

Even our bluebirds got into the action this year. Our family put up a beautiful new birdhouse, but it evidently did not quite meet Mrs. Bluebird’s ideal. When we went out to look, we found that on the sections where they nested the entry holes had been painstakingly enlarged. They renovated!

I confess, however, that the renovation shows frustrate me. They spend way too much time on the details of demolition, foundation repair, and other behind the scenes work. I just want to see the before, the plan, and the finished product, with lots of attention to the finished project. When I stream a show, I often fast forward to the last few minutes for the reveal.

I guess my impatience to see the finished product is also true in my spiritual life.

God redeemed an ‘as is’ human when He saved me. Since that time, He has been slowly and carefully molding me into the finished product – the image of His Son.

The process is sometimes painful as He demolishes strongholds in my life and teaches me not to hoard the attitudes and habits that dishonor His love. He calls me to willingly lay aside those things that hinder my relationship to Him. He works in my heart to help me recognize foundational problems that must be confessed. Just like on the home renovation shows, this process is often difficult and messy and slow.

The good news is that Jesus is the Master Builder. I do not believe it was coincidence that gave Him carpentry as a livelihood when He lived on this Earth. He has always been the Creator, Maker, and Designer.

Today, He works in my heart and life, shaping me into a vessel for His use. While I may chafe at the details of demolition, He takes great care in making sure that all parts of my life align with His plan for me. God is in the details.

The reveal won’t happen until I am with Him in glory, but I can guarantee it will be far beyond my wildest expectation.

For now, though, He’s still working on me.

A good listen: He’s Still Working On Me

Isaiah 64: ⁸ But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.