by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Restored by Grace

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

One of my favorite parks in Colorado Springs is going through a reclamation project. Over the years much of Ute Valley Park has changed due to people creating new trails, trails that have caused damage to the soil and plants. Signs similar to this one declaring that we are to stay away from this area, are posted in multiple places.

How many of us feel like reclamation projects? We have been damaged by the world and circumstances for which we did not ask. We might feel like the writer of Psalm 44 who declared that God’s people had done everything right, that they had not forgotten their God, yet they were suffering defeat.

We might post a sign in our lives that says, “Keep Out!” More damage occurs in our lives when people get involved in our reclamation project;  more growth is stunted, more erosion of our mental well-being takes place.

Advent is about the reality that God enters our lives to restore us. He doesn’t come and cause more damage, but in his mercy, his Son works restoration.

This restoration is based on the reality that Jesus entered our damaged lives 2,000 years ago and healed us by forgiving us for the damage that we have done to ourselves. He restored our relationship with the Gardener of our lives.

This restoration is based on the fact that Jesus is with us always, that he still comes daily into our broken lives and proclaims words of forgiveness even when we sin against him 70 times 7 times..

This restoration is based on the promise that Jesus will once again enter our lives and complete the work of restoration when we stand before our God fully clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, when for eternity we will be the garden of God’s restoration. In that day there will be no signs stating “Keep Out”. No signs declaring that we are reclamation projects.

On this Advent journey of reclamation may we hear Jesus say to us,

“And get this! I, I am with you every single day until the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado