God Writes More Than Just Love Stories

God writes the most beautiful of love stories. In fact, you could argue that everything He does is a love story written from His heart to ours. But when people say, “I’m letting God write my love story,” we all know what they’re talking about. They are choosing to look at life, and the choice of a life-mate, with an open heart and mind to what God wants for them. And I’ll tell you what, God writes some pretty incredible stories.

But I think sometimes we focus so much on the love-story part, we forget that God does more than just write romance stories.

Because let’s be honest, if that was all God did—some of us would be out of luck. Most of us have a past, you know. And many of us are already past the, “I do.” So what now?

What about all the mess-ups, all the loss, all the hurts? What about the story that is already written?

The truth is that God meets us right where we are. No one can go back in time and fix their past, but from here on out– things can change. God is willing to write new and beautiful life into your future. It’s the most lovely of all love stories… God’s story in you. 

And the glory is that God doesn’t just write love stories, He writes restoration stories too. 

In fact, I think that [pullquote]God’s restoration stories are the very best stories He writes.[/pullquote]

My husband is a mechanic, and one of his favorite things to do is to restore tractors. Not like, for show. There are lots of men who restore antique tractors to take to shows and things. No, Amos loves to do something different. When a farmer has a favorite tractor that gets burned—or ruined in some way— he often buys the tractor, takes it home, and fixes it. His goal is to make it usable. To make it worth something again.

Piece by piece, he puts it together again. But most times? The first thing he has to do is finish taking it apart.

He knows all about every little thing on a tractor. And a tractor that has been damaged requires careful inspection. It would be worthless for him to throw a coat of paint on it and send it home if it actually needs the engine rebuilt.

When God is writing a restoration story, He often takes us apart even further. He’s not going to just give us a new coat of paint, or a new label, and send us forward. He’s going to carefully go through our past and heal us.

I have tasted brokenness from my own choices. I have done things that wounded my heart and my mind. I have done things that have wounded others.

I have also tasted brokenness from other’s choices. I have carried the weight of their mistakes, and wounds from their sins.

And the enemy’s lie is that these things will always leave me empty. Nothing will fix my past. Sure, God loves me, but I still have to live with all this pain and loss. And good grief! I did most of it to myself!

God doesn’t work this way. God doesn’t leave our past there to prey on our minds. He does something different.

His restoration is so much greater than our type of restoration. We think about restoring an old car and bringing it back to “it’s original condition”– but He does it all one step further. [pullquote position= right]God restores things to better than original condition.[/pullquote] His restoration involves things like multiplication, transformation, new life.

God takes all these broken pieces of our lives and He replaces them with Himself. 

“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:1-3)

There are dozens of labels that could apply to me, to my past, to my brokenness. But the glory, the restoration story in my life, is that they are not mine any longer. [pullquote]The only thing my mess does, is point to God’s greatness. [/pullquote]

Yes, friends, God does write beautiful love stories. But that’s not all. Not even close.

Wherever you are, with whatever burdens you carry, there is a story waiting to be written. A story that starts from today and etches His glory, His presence, His love– into you.