Maybe it’s because I’m rapidly becoming a sentimental old fool, but take my advice and never, ever, agree to watch ‘The Repair Shop’ with me – not, that is, if you’re likely to feel awkward sat next to a grown man who is struggling to hold back the tears.
As a result of how much I bang on about it, my family will all tell you how I absolutely love ‘The Repair Shop’. What is it though that keeps me tuning in to watch each new episode, all of which are, essentially, the same?
Maybe it’s the inherent pleasure that comes from watching a group of skilled craftsmen and craftswomen at work, and seeing the obvious affection that each one has for all the others. Maybe it’s the warm glow I get inside from witnessing, not only the smiles they put on the faces of those whose broken items they repair, but the joy they themselves so evidently experience from doing so. Or maybe it’s because I’m guaranteed, not just one, but four happy endings with each heart warming episode.
But whatever the reason, I always enjoy the show and not infrequently find myself coming over all emotional. And catching up last night with this years Christmas special was no exception.
Because as well as being fun to watch an amazingly complex mechanical Christmas cake being restored, I found it genuinely moving to look on as the much more simple repair of an old record player took place.
The broken turntable enclosed within a wooden box had huge sentimental value for the lady who brought it to ‘The Repair Shop’, as it had been bought for her as a present by her 11 year old son, and given to her on Christmas Day 2005, less than two weeks before he died of osteosarcoma, a particularly unpleasant form of bone cancer.
Understandably, his mother wanted it repaired so she could use it to play the records she and her son had enjoyed when he had been alive. With it functioning again, she would be able recall more vividly the happy times they had shared, a tangible reminder of her son that would somehow make him feel that he was back with her once more
It was a highly emotional story and I was not the only one moved by it. Mark Stuckey, the electronics wizard charged with restoring the device, was also visibly affected by it such that he too was close on tears, something that must only have strengthened his resolve to make good the repair.
I don’t doubt how comforting it must be for the Mum to now be able to use her son’s parting gift to her to play the records that she listened to all those years before, but I couldn’t help wondering how much more comforting it would be if it had been her son who had been repaired, if it had been he that had been given back to her in perfect working order.
And so I thought of another reason why I might enjoy ‘The Repair Shop’ so much, and why I find it so often causing me to shed a tear. Perhaps, I thought, it’s because, as well as reminding me how much in this world is broken, it points me forward to a time that that will surely one one day be, when a more masterful craftsmen than any in ‘The Repair Shop’, and a greater physician than any I have ever worked with, returns and makes all things well.
Because as a Christian that is what I genuinely believe I have good cause to look forward to. I wholeheartedly believe that Jesus really will return and when he does, for God’s people, every tear will be wiped away and sickness and death will be no more.
At the end of a year in which so many have suffered as a result of war or natural disaster, and the beginning of another, which many I know will start with them struggling with sickness and sadness, it is a comfort to me that, whilst for now I weep with those who weep, we none of us need mourn as those who have no hope.
Because irrespective of whether Jesus returns this year, or long after I have myself died, it is no less true that, though weeping may tarry for the nighttime, joy really will come with the morning.
There are most certainly better days ahead – ones when the repair shop will no longer be required.
Other ‘The Repair Shop’ related blogs:
To read ‘The Repair Shop’, click here
To read ‘Brian and Stumpy visit The Repair Shop’, click here
To read ‘The State of Disrepair Shop’, click here
To read ‘We went to the animal fair – the diary of a novice grandparent’, click here
Other related blogs:
To read ‘I’ll miss this when we’re gone – extended theological version’, click here
To read ‘Lewis Capaldi – retired hurt’, click here
To read ‘A Sorrow Shared’, click here
To read ‘An audience for grief’, click here
To read ‘T.S. Eliot, Jesus and the Paradox of the Christian Life’, click here
To read “Luther and the global pandemic – on becoming a theologian of the cross”, click here
To read “Suffering- A Personal View”, click here.
To read “Why do bad things happen to good people – a tentative suggestion”, click here
To read “Hope comes from believing the promises of God”, click here
To read ‘on the FALLEN and the FELLED’, click here
To read ‘On NOT leaving your comfort zone’, click here
To read ‘Looking back to move confidently forward’, click here
To read ‘The Resurrection – is it just rhubarb?’, click here
To read ‘Faith and Doubt’, click here
To read ‘an Advent Calendar – Complete’, click here
Some musings 