I recently decided to take on a Christmas project for our two-and-a-half-year-old after a visit to my grandparents home in Adairville, KY. After my grandfather’s death in 2006, and more recently my grandmother’s admittance to a nursing home, our family has been going through the process, more like a mission, of going through the home. For the grandchildren in my generation, it is like a treasure hunt. On a recent trip, I decided to embark on an area that I had not been since I was eight or nine years old, the basement. After trying to figure out my Granddad’s system to his madness of lights, I began looking for two childhood memories.
According to some pictures I had seen and some faint memories of when I was a toddler, there was a tricycle and also a little red fire engine that you could peddle. The fire truck was easy to spot but after a little digging in the old coal heap, I saw a handle. The handle was, in fact, a tricycle and one that I had rode on when I was a toddler 30 years ago. Excited about the find, I raised up my 6 foot 3 inch body inside a ceiling that is 6 feet. Yes, I now have a scar. Despite my injury, I still found my project for Christmas 2010.
I don’t know if you have watched the show American Restoration, but the show is dedicated to restoring items 
back to their original glory. Well, this show inspires me and I always enjoy a great project that allows me to use my hands and to see a finished project. This tricycle will probably be a great start to test my restoration skills. It is small, doesn’t have an engine, and to my amazement, I found the parts I needed already on the web.
As I started my plan of attack for this project, I realized that there were going to be two major parts to this restoration, the first would be making sure that I get all the rust and old paint and old broken parts off. Secondly, I would need to put a new coat of paint on the tricycle along with any other parts that needed to be replaced. I was able to find a picture of the 1930s tricycle which will give me a template to work with. This helped me narrow my search for tires, pedals, and handles that will need to be replaced. Despite finding all this, there is still going to be some elbow grease needed and some help from a couple of church members to finish this project by December 25.
This Christmas project is not too distant from the project that God has with me and those that He calls His own. Think about it! We know that God’s desire is to make us more like his Son, Jesus Christ, who was perfect and fulfilled every desire that God had intended for man. Because of Christ, there is a template that God constantly is working to bring us near to. Now we are, in no way, going to ever be Jesus the God/Man, but Christ is the example for all of us as humans. Now many us try to restore ourselves, by putting on new coats of paint first, but you know, as well as I do, rust is not fixed with a coat of paint, and neither is sin covered by trying to make it look good. We are in need of someone to restore us. Simply said, we need someone to take off all our rust, and old parts that don’t work, and then secondly put a new coat of paint and parts that are part of the original design. My Christmas project will hopefully be finished in a few weeks, but we have to realize that our process that we call sanctification will take a lifetime. Unlike this little red tricycle, we humans fight and claw not to be restored, but because of His mercy and grace He chooses to fight for our progress to continue.
So what do we take from this? First we must realize that we are a process in the making. “If we confess Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness”(I John 1:9). Secondly, we have to remember that those around us are either projects in the making or someone who is waiting in the coal heap waiting to be introduced to the Restorer. This Christmas season may we submit to His work in us, be patient with other in the same process, and reach out to those who need the steadfast love of the One who sent His only Son over 2000 years ago, so that we might know our Maker and Restorer.
