Mending

Peter bent down and looked at his hands—worn with lines from years as a fisherman and now weary from the pen. Yet, his heart still burned to encourage these suffering believers. What else did God have to say to them, he pondered, as he traced the worn lines in his hands…

 “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:10)

“Restore” –Peter penned the Greek katartizo: “1) to render, i.e., to fit, sound, complete; to mend (what has been broken or rent), to repair; 2) to complete… 3) to strengthen, perfect, complete, make one what he ought to be.” His hands had many times kataritizo, mended nets (Mat. 4:21; Mark 1:19). Hands carefully taking the broken ropes, binding them together, repairing. Each broken, confused thread put back in place.

His Master had called him from mending fishing nets to be a fisher of men. It was the Lord himself who had restored him to this task once again when he had turned back to fishing, giving up hope on himself. Once again, the Lord called him with a miraculous catch of fish. Once again, he commissioned him (Luke 5:4-8; John 21).

Kataritizo… He saw the Lord doing that in his own life. The words were ever there, the precious words of life of his Lord. Surfacing to his mind was: “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is kataritizo [KJV: perfect; NIV: fully trained] will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). He, like his dear Christian friends, were called. Called, secure, for eternal glory in Christ. They would be made perfect. They would be restored by the Sovereign God.  

We are all in the hands of God—a God taking the twisted, rent, broken threads and weaving them together, mending them, to make us perfect like Himself. He himself, with each incident, moment, fear, joy, and calamity, is sovereignly weaving them together for our restoration. We are in His powerful, compassionate, masterful hands who is now working to make a complete restoration.