Last week my friend Duncan dropped by with some parts he had salvaged off of an old John Deere sickle mower.  We had decided to get all of the haying equipment ready for next season now instead of frantically repairing things the week before it’s time to start cutting next year.  Duncan’s thinking was that it is better to fix things while the problems are fresh in our minds.  Being old men we figure we might forget what was broken and in need of fixing a year from now.  Anyway, we spent the better part of a morning replacing broken parts, lubing, sharpening and adjusting my two old mowers.  When we finished we realized that the day was still young enough to get our hands into another project.  I had been telling Duncan about an old relic horse drawn mower I had acquired and brought home the year before.  It was missing lots of parts (including the sickle arm itself) and looked beyond repair.  It was covered with rust and the driving gears were seized after being discarded in a field for so many years.  Realizing that we had extra parts from the mower Duncan had brought (including an extra sickle arm) we decided to see what kind of damage we could do.

The rest of the day was spent grinding, pounding, fitting and improvising until the old mower was ready for a second chance in life.  Even its old gears broke loose and turned freely after being cleaned and lubed.

If you look close enough there is a lesson in everything.  As a pastor I’ve found that a lot of folks who have given up believe their lives are too far gone to be renewed and restored; they don’t realize that God’s whole purpose is to give us a second chance.  He is the great reconciler.  In fact the entire message of the Bible tells the story of his plan to do just that.  Colossians 1:22 says it well; “Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ… As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”

Our old mower isn’t without a single fault I can assure you,  and Duncan and I are far from being like Christ, but the point is – with God it’s never too late.  His desire is that you would be reconciled, renewed and restored so that the remainder of your life is meaningful and fully functional.  All you have to do is ask him.