Why Bother?

For those of you who have spent time on a restoration project, you have had this question asked; "Why bother restoring (insert project here).  It looks like way too much work.  I'd never have the patience for it, etc."

I have heard this coming from many people.  The first time was when I restored my 1929 Model A Ford Tudor Sedan and turned it into a hot rod.   It was almost 4 years to the day from when the car hit my driveway to the day it rolled out of the driveway under its own power.   To some people, that's a long time.  To us in the hobby, it's time well spent.  But when you can see through all the crap and crud and know that with a lot of TLC, you can make it as beautiful as it was on day 1, it becomes a labor of love

But then again, this car is a lot like we are in the eyes of the Lord.   We are rusty and worn out from life and our sin (even tho' in some circles "sin" is a 4 letter word).  There's no way we can fix ourselves up to "new" condition.  It takes power outside of ourselves to restore us to that condition we were in back in the day of Adam and Eve.   Yet, that is exactly what God did when he sent Jesus to us.   For him, our restoration was also a labor of love. Through His life, suffering, and death on the cross, he took our bent, broken, rusty, weather-beaten imperfections of sin on himself and restored us to like new condition in the eyes of God our Father.   Jesus didn't listen to the skeptics, especially Satan, when they said, "You can't do it.  It's impossible."   But Jesus did do it.   And to top it all off, his resurrection on that first Easter Sunday was the icing on the cake.  Jesus demonstrated that each of us will also be resurrected in glorified bodies to spend eternal life with him.   And it's all free through believing and following Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

So every time I look at my Mustang and work on it to bring her back to "like new" condition, I'm reminded that there is someone who has done the same thing for me.   OK, that's the pastor part of me talking.

I can't go without leaving at least one picture.   It is what I hope that my Mustang will look like one day in the future...except mine will be much cooler...and hopefully faster!