Since arriving back in Mill Valley, we have been on a hunt for furniture. In another season of my life I would have been content to drive to IKEA and buy flat-packed particle board furniture that I could put together myself in thirty minutes with a screwdriver and IKEA provided Allen wrench. This time around, however, I have found myself wanting furniture of substance, pieces made from real wood in its more natural state. Along with that, I have also developed a desire to take old pieces of furniture and refinish them to fit our style and restore a long forgotten beauty in those pieces. To date, we have acquired an antique dresser for Abi's room, a vanity bench to match, and this orange chair.We found this chair at a yard sale for $4. And immediately upon seeing it, I was drawn to the lines in the chair back and front legs. I hated the color, this rusty, carnival tinged orange, splotched with thick stray drops of white, originating from some unknown project. But I saw potential in the chair and bought it with the intent of stripping the paint and refinishing it. I started the project this week.
The project began with a simple paint scraper and sandpaper, but after an hour and a half of scraping and sanding and only one rail of the chair back actually cleanly stripped, I knew I needed stronger stuff. The next day, Abi and I traveled to Home Depot and bought chemical stripper, a paint brush, a steel bristled brush, and gloves. I returned home to begin the process of applying chemical stripper and attacking this stubborn paint. I have been at it for the last three days during Abi's naps and all I've managed to clean is the front of the chair back. Very quickly I noticed that removing the built up paint was going to be a tedious and stubborn task.
Yesterday, as I was scraping and sanding away at the blistered and bubbling paint pulled up by the caustic chemicals I thought deeply about the process of sanctification in the lives of those who follow Christ. Sanctification is often described as the process of being "cleaned up" by God. In truth, sanctification is more than being cleaned up, it is being cleaned up for the purpose of being made holy, set apart as someone dedicated for service to God. When I reflect on my own life, I find that sanctification is a difficult process.
Paul writes to the church in Rome, "now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life" (Rom. 6:22). The apostle is adamant that once we give our lives to Christ, we become slaves of a new master. In fact we become more than slaves, we become sons of God and our allegiance in life shifts from sin to God and the effects of our allegiance change from death to life. But in the process of changing allegiance, of shifting eternal outcome, sanctification happens. Those of us being sanctified, know that this process sometimes hurts and is difficult. Just as I bought this old chair to refinish and repurpose it, God purchases us for his own purposes through the death of Jesus, and from the point of purchase onward, he takes it upon himself to clean us up and make us into something beautifully crafted for his purposes and glory.
While sanding and scraping yesterday, I noticed that some areas of paint came off easier than others. Some layers literally just fell off, revealing the natural wood beneath. Yet, other parts of this chair held fast to the paint that covered it. Some stubborn areas were obviously stubborn. The seat for instance just will not let go of the paint. But other parts, like the little nooks and crannies, hide their stubbornness well.
As the orange paint flaked away giving view to layers of green and white I was also made aware of the many layers of sin in my life. The person I am today is a product of years of layering sin upon sin, of covering up my defects with false righteousness and religious lip service. It hurts to be stripped of those things.
Two hours of applying stripper, scraping, sanding and cleaning eventually revealed the beautiful grain of the wood beneath the coats of latex paint and a preview of what the finished project will look like, and I was really pleased. It was hard work for me. And it was hard work for the chair; I put it through a great deal of stress. At the end of the day's work I thought of Peter's encouraging words to the early church in his first letter when he says that the salvation kept in heaven for us is worth rejoicing in "though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." The things of this life for those of us who follow Christ often pose great trials and difficulty for us, but Scripture promises that these difficult times lead to our sanctification, to the revelation of the purity of our faith which results in God's glory at Christ's coming.
God has bought me, an object covered by thick coats of varnish and paint, applied through sin and to cover up sin, and he is sanding and scraping away at this vessel to reveal something that will glorify him. It hurts at times in the present, but I'm excited to see the end result of his handiwork.
-Stephen
