Rescued

I suppose I'm a rescuer of sorts. Some people have a heart for rescuing stray animals, and honestly, I'd probably do that too if my husband would let me, but my efforts lean more toward saving old, marred, cast-off furniture that's well beyond its glory days.

It's not past me to stop the car on the side of the road to save a chair or dresser from the trash heap, but most often my finds are from second hand stores and thrift shops. I pretty much leave antiques stores alone, as the furniture there has usually been well taken care of and typically demands a price that reflects that fact.

After all, rescuing something implies that it needs to be... rescued.

A few weeks back Tom and I were hitting up some thrift stores here in town. It was Labor Day weekend and close to my birthday, so we were having fun just out and about. In one of the stores I spotted a unique dresser. It was obviously old, an antique, but when I use the word antique in this context what I really mean is pretty beat up.

Yet...

There was something captivating about it. I had never seen one like it before. It was heavy. The wood on the drawer fronts was burled. The handles on the drawers were carved pears and pomegranates(?) and each of the drawers had old skeleton keyholes. The top had two glove boxes on either side and a marble insert between them. The mirror not only tilted, but also swiveled from left to right, and the bottom of the piece on front and sides had the sweetest scalloped detailing.

I was smitten.

My sweet husband noticed my interest and came over to have a look. There were obvious issues. The glove boxes each had a vertical crack across the top. Some of the curved trim was missing from a couple of the drawers, and while one of the drawers itself stuck badly, another wobbled loosely for lack of a tread.

He looked at me and said, "Well, it's coming up on your birthday. You want it?"... to which I replied, "Do you think you can fix it?" And right then and there, she was mine in all her messy, sticky drawer, trim - missing glory! I snagged the ticket and proceeded to get a place in line.

It being Labor Day weekend, the line was long. The store was pretty well packed with shoppers just like me. In fact, there were several others who had taken an interest in the dresser. One woman who was in line in front of me actually got out of her place to take another look at it. "Whew!", I thought. "Glad I'm holding the ticket or someone might have snapped her up before me!"

I needn't have worried. The woman came back in line and mentioned to her friend about the cracks on the drawers and the various flaws the piece had. Still others, attracted at first by the age of the dresser tried the drawers for themselves, gave cursory attempts at swiveling the mirror and then...

just walked away.

Perhaps it should have given me pause, but it didn't. I couldn't understand how a few cracks and some missing trim could dissuade so many from the obvious beauty and potential hidden just beneath the surface. The old gal still had lots of utulity left in her; I was sure of it! And, she was beautiful in my eyes. Yes, it was plain to see the piece had been neglected, even mistreated with some of the crude attempts at fixing her, but in the right hands I felt in my heart, she could really be something special.

I look at that piece, now placed lovingly in our bedroom, fixed as best we could, polished, dressed on top with a little lace doily... and I think about how Jesus looks at each of us.

This fallen world and the sin that runs rampant within it has done a number on us all. We are broken individuals, flawed, pelted with scrapes and dings from the arrows of the enemy. Our value to the world might not be much. In fact, if we were put up for auction, no one would care to render a price. They would all walk past. All but one.

There would be one... only ONE whose heart would stop at the sight of us. One who would see the potential. One who would dare to commit to the long and tedious process of restoration. Only One who would make the purchase. One who would sacrifice all He had to make us His... to make us whole again... to rescue us, redeem us, restore us.

I guess that's why I'm so drawn to old pieces of furniture that need more than a little TLC. Tossed, abandoned, forgotten, perhaps, but not in the eyes or the heart of someone who can see beyond all that others cannot.

Thanks be to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who sees the value in each and every soul. He's the only One who never walks past. He sees us in our lowly state and He stoops. He reaches. He redeems, He restores, and He rescues us in every way it is possible to be...

rescued.

"He breaks the pow'r of canceled sin; He sets the pris'ner free. His blood can make the foulest clean; His blood avails for me." "Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" TLH 528 (v.3)