This is Grace. Grace was made in Germany over 100 years ago. She was my Aunt Blanche’s childhood doll and she was one of only a couple of toys that Aunt Blanche saved. She gave her to me decades ago because she knew I loved dolls. I still have part of my doll collection on display in my house. Grace wasn’t much to look at and was in pretty bad shape even back in the early 70s when she came to live with me. And she and I have both been in a downward spiral since then!
She has been in a box with her dry-rotted clothes and I always intended to restore her but I never got around to it. She was mostly forgotten until I came upon the box recently and took pity on poor Grace. Until this pandemic, I always had places to go and things to do. But since I have some time to fill now, I have spent many hours this week redeeming Grace. I had to seal up the cracks in her leather body where her sawdust filling was leaking out. And I had to fix her torn leather arms, replace the stuffing in them, reattach them and glue her hands back in place. Then I found an old pattern I could adapt and sewed her some new clothes. Finally, I fixed her matted hair and now she’s as pretty as anything you’ll find on Amazon!
I decided Grace and I have a lot in common. We both needed to be redeemed. To redeem means “to compensate for the bad aspects of something.” Grace had a lot of bad aspects! And so do I. I have cracks and flaws in me that make me very imperfect. And I can’t fix them on my own; I need help. Isaiah says, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags,” – like Grace’s old clothes. But thankfully Jesus doesn’t forget about me. He sees the potential in me, redeems me by his blood, and makes me a new creation. The old is gone, the new is here. Now I’m restored and dressed in his righteousness. He sees me as perfect and now I’m useable. Thanks be to God for his redeeming grace!
Dianne