Liquid Gold

Paint is a wonderful invention!  Just think about it.  With a little paint, you can transform dingy, dirty walls into pristine and stylish backdrops.  With minimal sanding and a couple of coats of paint, outdated furniture becomes new again. Fresh paint transforms old windows into new ones, or so it seems.  Brightly colored paint gives well-used doors a more welcoming face.  Old houses regain their youth when someone takes the time and effort needed to apply a fresh coat of paint.  Paint can cover up a "multitude of sins."

Best of all, paint is relatively cheap, and easy to use.  Most do-it-yourself-ers can afford to buy paint, and they can apply it themselves with little or no training.

New furniture may cost hundreds of dollars; a new house, hundreds of thousands of dollars.  In the whole scheme of things, then, what is a can of paint?  Liquid gold?

In case you haven't guessed it yet, we have been painting.   In the past eight months, we have painted all three bathrooms, two bedrooms, some furniture, and the outside of our house.  I'm using that word, "we," intentionally, because several people worked together to accomplish this daunting task.  I haven't personally done much painting this time; I hate to paint!  But I love the results.

Erin and Victoria helped me paint the master bedroom, and I helped Victoria paint her room. Otherwise, our amazing contractor, Jim, has done most of the work.  He really is a pro.  Before he picks up a paintbrush, Jim scrubs, scrapes, fills holes, makes repairs, and primes.  When he is finished, everything looks new again, just like it should.

New paint on an old house

Although I might be tempted to say that Jim is a divine painter, he would surely object, and rightly so. Jim may be very good at what he does, but he would insist that only God is divine. And, besides, God doesn't need to use paint to make his transformations; he is the only one who is able to create something out of nothing. 

Paint provides a cheap and easy way to cover up all kinds of imperfections and makes things look new again. But God has provided something even better for us. It's not cheap, by any means, but it IS free.

Let's face it, we are all imperfect people. We are often unkind; we do terrible things to other people, we fail to help others, we gossip, we bask proudly in our self-righteousness, we ignore God. The list is really never-ending, but it all boils down to one word: sin. We don't like to talk about our sin, but it's there, anyway, for everyone to see, just like an old house that badly needs paint. Unfortunately, there is no kind of paint that can completely camouflage our sin, and removing our sin can never be a do-it-yourself project, anyway.

Only one thing can get rid of our imperfections. 1 John 1: 7b-9 says: The blood of Jesus, (God's) Son, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  

Our amazing God is so much more than a painter. He has already done all the work needed to transform you and me into something clean, and beautiful, and perfect in his sight. Because he loves us, he sent his Son, Jesus, to be punished in our place. Jesus has taken our sins away. If we confess our sins, God promises to forgive us and make us clean again, day after day, for as long as we live.  And along the way, he will change us in ways we can never imagine. 

Who needs paint?