It has been been awhile since I have written anything on this blog…I really didn’t think that I would be away for so long but I am just believing that it has been more a summer thing and nothing else. 

Today I began painting the upstairs bathroom.  I had  to smile as Carl and I had the conversation that we always encounter when I get the painting bug.

Carl:  Why are you painting?

Helen:  Because the room looks terrible and it is time.

Carl:  It looks fine…why don’t you just wash the walls?

Helen:  I did!  It hasn’t changed the fact that this room 
                looks crummy.

Carl:  Didn’t you just paint last year?

Helen:  No…it has been at least 3 years…

Carl:  (shrugs his shoulders and walks away while shaking his head.)
I returned home after that eternal discourse with two gallons of paint in my hands.  I did what I said I would never ever do again…I painted the walls WHITE!!!!!

After having such a wonderful time painting the different rooms of our house in deep and rich and sometimes bright colors…I had proudly declared that I would never again paint my walls white…ever.

I had made the er, mistake of letting my girls choose the colors of their primary bathroom when they were 13 and 9…thus I painted a powder room periwinkle and yellow…initially since the room was rather drab to begin with it was very cheerful but after maybe 3 months…it was not that delightful. 

I primed like a good painter and had quite a bit of trouble covering that pesky periwinkle.  I put the first coat of the clean crisp white and still the old color showed through making my white seem a bit gray…tomorrow hopefully the second coat will do the trick.

As I was finishing the last of the rolling for the night…I thought about how this painting project is a bit like me…maybe like you as well.  I won’t beat around the bush…I am a sinner with a capitol “S”.  Thankfully, I have met a Redeemer who loves me anyway and He forgives me and makes me clean…in  fact, a crisp clean white.  But often I doubt that I am really cleaned up.  I feel a bit gray…and a bit unbecoming.  Have I really been forgiven…for it all?  But my Savior says that I don’t need more than one coat…in fact, I don’t even need primer…when He says I am forgiven…He means it…that very moment…it is done…finished…I don’t have to come back tomorrow or the day after that and inspect to see if He missed a spot or did one area of His grace drip and leave my sin exposed.  He takes care it all…it is complete…

He’s working on a masterpiece…did you realize that?  Right now, it might seem to be a bit like a Picasso but I am betting that one day…we all will be gallery worthy…actually the Father thinks we are pretty priceless right now. 

My painting party has given me even more reason to celebrate having a new room.  It has reminded me that I have a new heart getting closer and closer to His all the time.  I have been cleansed and set free from judgment.  How I hope that one day the Father won’t have to shake His head puzzled by my behavior because I will have learned that I just have to come to Him…let Him apply my coat of grace and know that He means it and so I can believe it.

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.” 
                                             Isaiah 1:18

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness.” 
                                             I John 1:9

Sometimes I wish that life was a little bit more like painting by the numbers but…you know if you have ever looked at one of those canvasses…there is quite a bit of white spread abroad…it  brings all the color into focus…so there is a place for bold wonderful color but there has to be white….Amen!