Many years ago, Nancy and I bought an old house. It smelled bad. The interior walls were covered with coal dust. The lawn was mostly dead. The draperies were sad and tired. The carpets were worse. As we lived there, we learned that it was almost impossible to heat. We also discovered that bats lived in the walls and occasionally flew around inside the house. The wiring was inadequate and actually started an electrical fire. The box elder bugs almost drove us out. And, until we discovered the plugged sewer, all the sewage in the house was draining into the crawl space.
Yet, we loved that house! We loved its historic character. We loved the oak doors with the beveled glass. We loved the bay window with the window seat. We loved the plate rail in the dining room.
So, we went to work. We scrubbed off the coal dust. We soaked off tired, faded wallpaper. We painted the walls. We put on a new roof and storm windows. We installed new drapes, new carpet and period light fixtures. We uncovered a window that had been covered by cabinets. We tore out a wall that hid the window seat. Our son Andy said that he wanted an Old West town in his bedroom, so we created that complete with a vault door as the entry into the room. Of course, we stretched a zipline between the big trees in the backyard. We built two treehouses and installed a bucket trolley between them so that snacks could be passed back and forth. Nancy started an amazing garden.
We brought new life to a worn, tired house. That house was the backdrop for great family memories and frequent gatherings. With all its foibles, we loved that house!
It struck us recently that each of us is much like that house. We are worn, smelly, and broken—burdened by sins and malfunctions. We are shabby and dilapidated.
Yet God has a vision of what we can become. He cheerfully goes to work. He gladly scrubs, plasters, paints, and renews each of us. He makes something truly lovely out of us—something both unique and magnificent.
Many of our life experiences seem random. It seems often that we suffer without purpose and struggle without benefit. Brigham Young offers a different and heavenly perspective.
“Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation . . . We are the happiest people when we have what are called trials; for then the Spirit of God is more abundantly bestowed upon the faithful . . . All that I have passed through has been joy and joyful to me . . . I have heard a great many tell about what they have suffered for Christ’s sake. I am happy to say I never had occasion to. I have enjoyed a great deal, but so far as suffering goes I have compared it a great many times . . . to a man wearing an old, worn out, tattered and dirty coat, and somebody comes along and gives him one that is new, whole and beautiful. This is the comparison I draw when I think of what I have suffered for the Gospel’s sake–I have thrown away an old coat and have put on a new one. No man or woman ever heard me tell about suffering. “Did you not leave a handsome property in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois?” Yes. “And have you not suffered through that?” No, I have been growing better and better all the time, and so have this people. I am at the defiance of any historian to prove that the Saints have ever suffered as much as the sinners. I sit and laugh, and rejoice exceedingly when I see persecution” (Discourses of Brigham Young, p.348).
God’s words in the Doctrine and Covenants seem appropriate.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are [old, rundown houses], and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
D&C 78:17-19, adapted
And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.
And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.
We should trust the great Remodeler. He has a vision for each of us. We can be peaceful even as he knocks out walls and tears out carpet. Rather than resist Him, we can be attentive to His purposes and gladly work with Him as He transforms us. You probably remember how C. S. Lewis expressed it.
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
C.S. Lewis
We should welcome any remodeling the Master Architect imposes on us. He has plans for us.
Invitation: Would you like to learn how to apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ and good research to enriching and strengthening your marriage? Join me and Nancy for a marriage retreat on April 12 in Alpine, Utah. Normally $199 per couple, we still have a few seats at the early bird price of $149! To get more information and register for the retreat, go to: drwally.com
Appreciation: Thanks to Barbara Keil for her skillful refinements of this article.
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