Since I have come to Sand Springs, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know so many
people both in the church and in the community. People here have proven
themselves to be warm and friendly, and that has made coming to Sand Springs a
much easier process.
One of the people I met while opening a bank account last
week was a classic car enthusiast, like myself. She and her husband had
recently been to Detroit to a car show where their 1958 Chevy pick-up finished
in the top ten. This was not just any show, it was one where Chip Foose was not
a judge, but an entrant! (If you don’t know who Chip Foose is, we can talk
later.) I even had the opportunity to go to the garage where this truck and
many others have gotten a new lease on life.
Standing there looking at the progress those cars go through
from stripped down, rusty hulks to the high performance, street machines they
are becoming turned my thoughts to Easter. I know, it seems quite a jump, but
bear with me.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we aspire to be like him. But
it’s much more than asking ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” it means allowing
the Spirit of Jesus Christ to flow through us and make us new from the inside,
so that, in essence, we never really have to ask that question. We already
know.
The Apostle Paul talks about being “in Christ.” This is his
way of describing the process of allowing the Spirit of Christ to flow through us,
to strengthen us, and to give us life; not the life we had, but new life, abundant
life like we have never experienced before. That’s why he told the Corinthians,
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away;
behold, the new has come,” (2 Cor. 5:17).
Maybe you can see how I relate this to old cars. After a
certain age and mileage, most cars are dismantled, crushed and turned into
scrap. They are no longer useful. We want something new. But a classic car is
something worth saving. They don’t make them like that anymore. An expert
mechanic and restoration specialist can take an old car completely apart,
replace metal, wiring, engine and brakes so that almost nothing is left of the
old jalopy. It is completely new; but not completely. It has all the charm, or
personality of the old car, but runs and performs like a brand new one. Now do
you get the connection?
There are a lot of folks in society that get labeled, “useless”.
It may be because of mental or physical deficiencies, or maybe they just have
too many miles on them. I can relate to that on some days! But God is like an
expert mechanic. He is the one who made us to begin with, and he can remake us
into something wonderful. God doesn’t see junk or something useless when he
looks at us. God sees something he rejoiced in when he made it the first time,
and God will rejoice when he makes us into something new. That’s what Jesus
came to do.
Paul finishes that chapter by saying, “God in Christ was
reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against
them,” (2 Cor 5:19). May your Easter be filled with the love of God that makes
all things new!
