They will rebuild ancient ruins on your account;
    the foundations of generations past you will restore.
You will be called Mender of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Livable Streets. – Isaiah 58:12

Today is one of those “Build this around one photo” posts.

“Why?” Well mostly because I haven’t been taking a lot of pictures this week, but also because it’s a good writing discipline.

We were excited to see two pickup trucks and four guys at the St. Patrick Street house when we walked by after lunch. So we took a look around and found the carpenter, Eddie, working behind the little bonus room that’s slated to become Rebekah’s craft room – study – office etc.

It’s a quirky area she is quite thrilled about, situated at the back of the house and accessed by climbing a couple of steps off the master bedroom. The design suggests the space was originally built as a sleeping porch. Someone added a back door at one point along with massive concrete steps into the yard – we’re removing both – and the windows were in such bad shape Rebekah will get to enjoy the only new ones this project will likely see.

Alchemy:

There is a mysterious alchemy afoot in this renovation. It’s as though this is an archaeological dig that unearths history that is then somehow transformed into a kind of newness that is still old. The cast of players in this play are all bona fide characters who add color and a depth, act by act, to the unfolding story. They will in a sense inhabit the bones of the house long after it is completed.

I like the word alchemy when thinking about this project. Here is a useful definition from Dictionary.com:

1. a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life.
2. any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value.
3. any seemingly magical process of transforming or combining elements into something new:

Looking at the definition, in our project I can absolutely see speculative philosophy, the transmuting of common substances, and seemingly magical processes that combine elements into something new and of great value.

This is the beauty of renovation and restoration. And of course this is the fundamental principle of spiritual life. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Renew me, restore me, refresh me.

It is this last phrase that speaks to me this morning; “refresh me.”

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.” – Acts 3:19-20

May we all be so refreshed – DEREK