How Good Are You At Mending Things?

Repairing things is not my natural gift and I still remember trying to repair my mother’s bicycle as a teenager. The envelope of leftover parts stayed in the repair box, neatly labelled, for several years!

More recently, generous neighbours have repaired my strimmer, giving me a grease gun and instruction about future maintenance and have salvaged my motor mower.

In our lives there will be times when we will need physical mending and hopefully modern medicine and treatment can be effective. Emotional mending may occur through counselling and therapy.

As a Christian, I believe that we also need to remember that we have a spiritual dimension to our lives and that spiritually we need maintenance and at times mending and restoration.

In the well-known story about the prodigal son who had to do his own thing, demanding his inheritance which he wasted away, the son eventually, when at rock bottom, realised he had to mend his ways.

Returning home, he sought to restore his relationship with his father, admitting he was in the wrong and accepting that he might end up as a hired servant in his father’s household.

He was astounded at the welcome he received. In fact, the father was looking out for him and ran towards him with open arms.

The Bible is full of examples of God’s love and desire to restore us to a relationship with him and in the end, he sent his Son Jesus to show us how this can be done.

As we may need help to mend machinery or our bodies, we may need help to mend our spiritual lives and be given guidance on how to do this.

Why not read Mark’s Gospel in a modern translation or talk to someone who has a living faith in God? You might be surprised to learn how much God longs for people to believe in his Son.

Jesus’ life and death was all about restoring a right relationship between God and us. Jesus gave his life to remove all the blocks which prevent us from being close to God.

As John wrote in his gospel: For this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Roland Guy