Flea Market Flip

 P and I are currently obsessed with a show on HGTV called “Flea Market Flip.” I find it extremely adorable that my eight year old son watches this with me because he “likes anything with a competition.” Boys!

 In the thirty minute show, two teams are given $500 and a mission to transform flea market junk into three fabulous products for resale. The team who makes the most profit wins. We’ve watched some great transformations on this show. The creativity of people never ceases to amaze me. The art of finding a good deal isn’t lost on me, either. I love finding cheap stuff with good lines and making it “new” again.

 Since we moved to Texas, we have “flipped” a couple of our own flea market finds. P’s new dresser and nightstand were purchased for about $50, and have been sanded, painted, and adorned with new hardware. I purchased an end table for $20 and painted it the perfect shade of Blue Lagoon. Flyboy redid a mirror that was supposed to attach to P’s new dresser, and hung it in the girls’ room.  Mak’s new dresser is waiting for its own coat of paint, and my pride and joy, a gorgeous French provincial china hutch, is begging me to paint it a gorgeous shade of gray.

Needless to say, “Flea Market Flip” is relevant to our family. Most of us can look at a cruddy piece of furniture or knick-knack and be able to see it in a different way. Not for what it is now, but what it’s going to be when we’re done refurbishing it. We can see the gorgeous shape of a table, or the clean lines of a shelf, and know that with a good sanding and a coat of paint, the item will be better than it was when we found it. We see that dirty milk glass vase lying in the mountain of equally filthy vases, and know that after a good washing, it will look stunning in our new gray china hutch. We see the beauty that has been lost on others.

Don’t you think God looks at us like that? We see our scratches, and our torn fabric. We see the dirty, stained parts of our pasts. We see garbage.  But through Jesus’ sacrifice, we have been “flipped.” We are no longer that lonely flea market cast off! God doesn’t see our dirt, or our stains. Because He sent His son to die for us, we have been washed clean! God notices our nice lines, our pretty shape, and our “good bones.” He knows that we are tired and worn, but He made a way for us to become new again. He created the potential in each of us, and sent Jesus to pick us out of the heap of discarded refuse to be revamped and repurposed.

I was that flea market garbage once. I’ve had many less-than-proud moments. Thankfully, God saw my dirty, lost, form and lifted me from the trash pile. He sanded me down, gave me a new purpose, and put me to work.

                2 Corinthians 5:17 -  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

-How has God pulled you from the trash heap?

-What is your best flea market find?

                I’d love to hear from you!