We’re doing a lot of walking around the neighbourhood during these pandemic lockdown days. There is a very old building—formally a school, currently the council archive offices. Well the whole building is getting a makeover, completely gutted. And the car park too, excavations, new drains everything. I think it’s going to look exquisite in the end. There are a couple beautiful lead capped spires that are being ‘renewed’. We walk by often to see what has happened and if we have any little people with us—well, there are diggers and cranes and exciting stuff!
They took the roof off. That means removing the 100+ year old slates. They were carefully stacked up at the top of the scaffolding that encircles the building. Piles of 10 or twenty slates. On another day a layer of blue membrane appeared on the roof trusses. Then on the blue the new fresh batons ready for slates to be nailed in place. At first I didn’t realise that they were going to put the old original slates back in place. But as day after day I saw the blue being covered by slate I realised these were the original slates. Now nearly all of the slates have been put back in place.
It’s not all finished yet. It’s going to look old, same stone walls, same slates. But I bet the windows will look shinny and new. And of course I can’t wait to see what happens to that car park and will there be a completely new extension? We wait to see.
The thing that’s been stirring me up is the old slates with new underneath. We are like that. Jesus has made us new, underneath. It’s all good, but we might look old on the outside. Our house has an original roof. After storms I go out and look to see if any of the slates have fallen or the clay tiles crashed to the ground. Because I know the wood underneath is old, I know the nails will fail eventually. But hey this other building is now set for a further hundred years of storms—slates held with new nails in new wood. And us? Those who put our trust in Jesus? Under the weary bodies—newness of life, set for eternity. Ready for the storms. So don’t be fooled, this weary body has been changed, refreshed, readied for battle in the secret places. And there are many like us. Old slates, new underneath.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
2 Cor 4:16
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2 Cor 5:17
So in this town full of historic homes, lovely on the outside—but sometimes slowly rotting underneath, seeing this restoration reminds me that Jesus is restoring us from the inside out, preserving those key features that he built into us in the first place.
