Last week we took a trip to Waco, Texas to visit the places we saw on the TV program “Fixer Upper.” We didn’t expect to see the stars of the show, Chip and Johanna Gains, but we hoped to see some of their work. In the show they fixed up old houses, transforming them into amazingly beautiful homes. They also purchased some old grain silos and built a store for Johanna’s creations, remodeled a restaurant, and turned an old building into a bakery.
The restaurant, Magnolia Table, was near our hotel and we waited an hour to get in. It was simply decorated, but in Johanna’s unique style. We saw it on the show, so there weren’t any big surprises. We heard the prices were high, but they weren’t too bad. I wasn’t very hungry, so I had a breakfast taco and tater tots. The tater tots reminded me of the potato cakes I loved as a child! My wife, daughter and grandchildren were happy, so that “fixer upper” was a success.
The next day we visited the Silo District with great anticipation and discovered the “silos” were just a backdrop for a city block of stores, shops and places to buy and enjoy food. I waited outside the coffee shop while my family checked out Magnolia Home furniture and furnishings store. Other nice little shops had people waiting in line to enter, due to COVID. At a grain storehouse turned into store, we purchased Magnolia souvenirs. Grandma (my wife) had to buy for herself, our grandchildren and her sisters’ back home, who love watching the show.
The last area was food trucks, trailers and shops surrounding a courtyard with trees, and benches. The food was great, with gourmet burgers, BBQ, fancy grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, Asian rice bowls and iced tea in huge mason jars! The hardest part was choosing what to eat. When it came time for the ladies to visit the bakery, I headed to our car for a nap.
This was obviously a tourist trap and someone was making lots of money from this place. So why did we enjoy it so much? Besides spending time with family and the perfect spring weather, we have all watched the show and the stars are very enduring. Chip and Johanna seem to be really nice folks. These hardworking, family-oriented, Christian people found success right before our eyes. Everything they do is stylish, high quality, and yet has a comfortable feel. That was evident in everything we saw. We saw the way they “fixed up” downtown Waco, drawing people in to enjoy their hometown. Another thing we saw were the many jobs they created, providing steady income for their neighbors during what is supposed to be an economic crisis.
Most of what we saw in Waco will pass away someday and is of little importance, but the people we saw are spirit-beings and will be somewhere forever. Unlike the run-down places that were fixed up on the show or the businesses that were brought back to life, we don’t need to be “fixed up.” We have to be “born again” and become new or we can’t spend eternity with GOD. GOD knew our condition and how to make us right. In fact He has been working on His plan from the foundation of the world. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV). JESUS died on the cross to take our sins, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17 KJV).
Wayne Lance