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I’ve never seen the
extremely popular Reality TV show, Extreme Makeover, Home Edition, but
this past week it came to our town to do a makeover for a local family. It
was an incredible
event. The family was sent off on a week-long, all-expense paid vacation
in the Bahamas while local volunteer contractors demolished the family’s
old home and built them an entirely new home in one week. The old home was
nothing more than a small, damp basement with a roof over it. The new
house was a beautiful 3000 square-foot home with three-car garage and even
a new road into the property. Local businesses and individuals donated
everything from expensive paintings to a library of new books to furnish
and decorate the home. A college fund was established for the kids, which
collected over $55,000 in just the first few days. One local realtor even
bought the neighboring property in order to donate it to the family so
they would have more land. Now I know why they call it Extreme Makeover.
But when the family came home from their vacation to be greeted by
thousands of well-wishers and their new home, their faces said it all.
Overnight they went from poverty to riches. And it didn’t come from
gambling or an inheritance or even their own efforts. It came from the
outpouring of love and generosity of thousands of people who didn’t even
know the family. I can only imagine the deep sense of gratitude that such
a thing would arouse in a person. Words could never express it.
However, do I really have to imagine? For those of us who are Christians, haven’t we experienced a similar Extreme Makeover, perhaps even more extreme? In the book of Ezekiel we read of a promise to the nation of Israel that is really Messianic, having its fulfillment in New Testament times. Promising to return the people of Israel to their homeland (after an all-expense-paid vacation to Babylon), God said to Israel, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek 36.26). When God said he would remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, he meant they would be given a soft heart, one that is receptive to God. We see this idea expressed throughout the New Testament. Jesus spoke of the necessity of being born again (Jn 3.3-5). Paul, in Romans, spoke of how the old man dies and is buried and we are raised to newness of life (Rom 6.2-4). He stated further, “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor 5.17). We are “being transformed into the same image” as the Lord (2 Cor 3.18). For most of us (really all of us), this demands an Extreme Makeover, though it might take more than just one week. Certain aspects of it are immediate, but God is working on us throughout our lives to transform us into something wholly new. This is the “Extreme Makeover, Heart Edition”. And what a sense of gratitude this ought to arouse within us. Words cannot express it, but let us all say, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Cor 9.15).
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