For anyone who loves home restoration shows on HGTV and thumbing through glossy home magazines for inspiration, Restored takes the concept of a home makeover to the next level with the author’s deep soul restoration detailed alongside the renovations of her old Texas farmhouse.
Photographer and portrait artist Meshali Mitchell had no idea what she was in for as she began to restore her house, with its lovely old bones, cracks in the plaster, and shifting foundation. She was on her own journey of healing from wounds that had held her captive for far too long. In this book, replete with stunning photographs, Mitchell takes readers along as she heals and rebuilds along with her home.
“This book is no memoir; it’s not my story but ours,” she writes. “It’s a space of refuge—a spot on my porch I invite you to share with me. The newness of loving something back to life begins with a story—the stories you and I bring to the table, the ones that sometimes have hard beginnings and middles.”
Just as her house, with its front porch and golden light, had its beautiful places and its broken places, so Mitchell’s soul needed foundational repair. “Even then, I understood God was reminding me that he is making all things new, restoring me as a living house.”
I adored this book with the author’s sumptuous, profound writing and gauzy, dreamy photos. Mitchell is admirably vulnerable and makes the reader feel as if they are not so alone in their own journeys of restoration.
In one compelling story, Mitchell kept trying to plaster over cracks in the wall until one day her contractor said, “I wish you’d let me fix that for you. … Your issue is that your foundation is off right there. … You need a true repair.” She compares her DIY efforts with our measly attempts to fix ourselves.
In the end, Mitchell allowed her contractor to fix the foundation of the house, a process that was messy and costly, but worth it. “I never have to deal with that crack again,” she writes.
Readers will experience anew God’s lovingkindness, attention, and compassion, as they tend to their wounds with God as their guide.
“When our life is broken, we may think the answer to our problems is outside ourselves or requires a change in external circumstances,” she writes. “But often the answer is found in the inner work. There is tending that needs to happen at the soul level.”
With photos to linger over and truths to soak in, Restored is perfect for gift-giving to anyone who might need a boost of encouragement, warmth, and comfort. I gave it to a young friend recovering from alcoholism, and she loved the insights and the comfort inside its pages.
“Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others,” Mitchell quotes Parker Palmer. “Anytime we can listen to our true self and give it the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch.”
Richly wrought, wise, and healing, Restored brings the gift of Christ-centered self-care and soul care to readers and those they love. (Revell)
About the Author
Lorilee Craker, a native of Winnipeg, Man., lives in Grand Rapids, Mich. The author of 16 books, she is the Mixed Media editor of The Banner. Her latest book is called Eat Like a Heroine: Nourish and Flourish With Bookish Stars From Anne of Green Gables to Zora Neale Hurston.