I like watching the guys on the DStv programme, Gas Monkey Garage. They might not look so good, but the work they do is amazing – if you love cars it will take your breath away. They take an old beat-up car that belongs on the scrap heap and transform it into a brand-new masterpiece.

When the car is towed into the garage, they first decide what must stay and what must go. Usually, almost everything is dumped. Then they jump in with their grinders, welding machines and enormous hammers, and almost always all that remains is the framework. Sometimes even the framework is remodeled to make space for new things.

And then the guys start building. The framework is strengthened and adapted where necessary. New suspension, new engine, new brakes, new gearbox, new lights, new exhaust and shiny new wheels. And then the car gets brand-new finishing on the inside and the outside is resprayed.

When you look at the final masterpiece you cannot see that it once was a rusty, broken-down old car. The mechanics of Gas Monkey Garage raised that old car from the dead and now it can give new models a go on the road. I would love to drive such wheels one day …

Actually, this is what happens to us too. When we accepted Jesus as our Saviour, we were also towed into the heavenly garage. Our old ways of living, our former values, were pulled out and replaced with new ones. In Biblical words it is described as follows: ³Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life.

We are made new in Christ. He came to give us a new heart, a heart that no longer only attends to myself and wants everything for myself. No, this new heart cares for others. This new heart cries with others who hurt and suffer.

We get new eyes so that we can look differently, softer, at the way others do things. Our hands change, because suddenly we want to do things for others. Our feet change, and they want to walk towards the things of God. Even our way of thinking becomes new, because now we think differently.

And when I look at myself, I hang my head in shame, because I can still see too much of that beat-up old car in me. Too many rusty patches are still visible and the engine itself is not running so well. Sometimes the brakes don’t work and I cross the line. And immediately I want to know: Why? Because the verse says that God guarantees us a new life.

Then I remember that we are still living in a world filled with sin and that I myself have to make the right choices. It is as if I’m right there in the Gas Monkey garage and at all costs want to stop the guys who want to take out the old and put in the new. Maybe you and I should surrender to the mechanics so that they can do their work.

Gradually our broken parts will be replaced with brand-new ones and the rusty patches will disappear one-by-one. We will be able to go out into the world all new and shiny to show others what a real child of God should look like.

Scripture

Colossians 3:1-4

Reflection

How is your renewal process going?

Where do you have to submit more?

Where can you help others?

Prayer

Father, thank you for being the great Mechanic who cannot stop working before being satisfied with what we look like. I know You will continue to work on me until You are proud of who I am and the way I live life. Amen.