My name is Mark Woodward and I am the new pastor of Juda Zion Community Church in Juda, WI. This is my first contribution to the Reflections column and it is a privilege to speak with you! I am a carpenter by trade and live and work bi-vocationally here in Green County. So if I don’t see you in the course of my church life, I might meet you to build something someday!  

Working in the trades, we spend a lot of time making messes. We come into a perfectly neat home and within a day, we have torn it all to pieces. It is dusty, messy, and dirty. During the early stages of a project, it looks far worse than before we started. The guts of the building are exposed and the old, broken, rotted, and damaged parts of the building are laid bare. 

It is often shocking what we find hidden behind those nice white walls. There is a lot of time and effort spent to take out the damaged parts, repair, replace, and rebuild. The cost, depending on the damage can be significant even prohibitive. Yet it is worth it to the owners. It is their home and when we are finished, it is new, it is clean, and it is beautiful.

In John 14:23 Jesus told us, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” 

You were made to be a home for God. He built you intricately, uniquely, and with pain staking detail. Yet there is an ugly truth. Our natural state is to keep Him out; to claim sole residence in our life. He is not a dictator and never forces His way in. Instead He says in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

So for a while we “win” and live in sole control, but we find over time a simple unavoidable reality: without Him, things fall apart. They rot and crumble and the idea of someone pulling the facade of clean walls around your life off to see what lies underneath is terrifying. There is no way we can repair and clean all this! We don’t have the tools, the skills, and we cannot afford the cost.  

So many people live feeling deep down that they have no value. They are broken beyond repair. They are not worth the work or cost to anyone to put them back together. In the Bible the book of Romans 5:6-8 reads, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

You are not broken to God. You are not too dirty, rotted, or falling apart. He built you to be His home. You have infinite value to Him. How do I know? The cost. It cost Him the life of His own son. The two master carpenters decided to pay for the whole project. Why, because HE MAKES BEAUTIFUL THINGS. He made YOU!

Hear that knocking? Try opening the door and see what happens when Jesus comes home to you! God bless and we will see you in church.

— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Mark Woodward is pastor of the Juda Zion Community Church.