Repurposed

Several years ago I was sorting through boxes in our garage after a recent move into a much larger home. I stared with dread at the seven old WWII military trunks my husband had kept in storage since his father’s passing eighteen years earlier. They had travelled all over the world during the 1940s-1960s as his father was relocated and held great sentimental value to my husband.

Now what are we going to do with these dirty old trunks? The thought of keeping them in the garage or moving them into the attic for another eighteen years was unappealing.

In the meantime, I searched for economical ways to decorate our new home looking for sales at furniture stores, going to estate sales or consignment shops. One day I saw a beautiful “military” styled trunk in a nearby furniture store with a $700.00 price tag on it. It was displayed as a side table in a family room. It was raised up on legs, black and very much a handsome piece of furniture.

Seven hundred dollars for a military trunk? Wait a minute! We have lots of these in our garage! I can paint some of those trunks. The problem was, how do I get them raised off the floor? I went online and found a pattern to make stands for the trunks and found a woodworker to make them for only $30.00 each.

With my husband’s permission to proceed, I painted one trunk with chalk paint and distressed it to be used at the foot of a bed in a spare bedroom, and painted another black to be used as an end table in the corner of our master bedroom. The trunks now found their new purpose instead of being hidden away. I’ve since added two more to different rooms in our home. This enabled me to honor my husband’s wishes to keep the trunks, but also make good use of them.

The transformation with the trunks reminded me of my own transformation years ago. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” But God didn’t change me just on the outside, he changed me on the inside as well. However, the transformation on my inside was so dramatic, it reflected on my outside. I was reborn to fulfill the purpose and plans God had for me.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” When we become a Christian, God repurposes us, just like those dirty old military trunks. He can make us into something completely brand new. I’m so glad God sees the heart of man and doesn’t give up on us. Aren’t you?

(Photos below of before and after trunks, and me before and after I became a Christian.)