Painting

At least once a year, our family assumes some big painting project around the house. For some reason my mom dislikes the same colour remaining on the wall for over three years. A month ago, the project of choice was the dreaded entry/dining room/parlor—complete with two-story, vaulted ceilings. But, we overcame and succeeded. Now, when someone comes in, they always admire the nice job we did. But standing around, our own eyes light upon the drips, the spots we missed, how the windows still don’t have shades, and our shortcomings in being perfect painters. It’s strange how it’s the same way with our lives.

We are going through life with the big project of being painted in the image of Christ. Standing on this side of eternity, we can only see our failures: how we yelled at sibling/parent/friend yesterday, or forgot to read the Bible the other day, or went nearly a whole day without even thinking of God, much less praying. Our eyes can only see the bad; we only see our imperfections.

Thankfully the story doesn’t end there. God is looking down at us through Jesus’ cleansing blood. And what He sees are perfect beings, washed in grace and made perfect by our weakness and dependence upon Jesus. To God, we are like the painted rooms from guest’s eyes. Everything seems perfect and in place. That doesn’t mean we don’t still have problems we’re working on, but God doesn’t notice! To Him, we are cleansed, holy, perfectly-painted walls!

“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” ~ I Thessalonians 5:23, NLT