PAINT

In another day or two, a painter who has worked for a couple of weeks repainting the exterior of our house will be finished with this job.  He has worked solo tirelessly to give us a job well done.  I've watched him often as he worked and let me tell you, he's not as old as me but he's not a young whippersnapper either.  

As I thought about this whole process today, I gained some wisdom.  I will say here that I remind The Husband often at his fortune of being married to a simple minded, easy to please wife.  (And he agrees and says thanks.)   When the discussion began to repaint the house after ten years, the first question The Husband asked was "What color do you want?"  My reply was, "the same color it is now.  I've liked it for ten years, I'm sure I will like it ten more.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  Well, of course, that made it easy for The Painter and The Husband.  The only interior walls that needed painting was the very small "master" bath that had been painted over ten years ago--painted over wallpaper--and had water spots.  The Husband did advise me that we needed some sort of "eggshell based" paint that wouldn't show as many spots.  He sent me to the hardware store to pick this.  Well, if you consult the early part of this paragraph, you will understand that it doesn't matter to me.  I brought home many samples and told The Husband to pick.  He did.  It's painted.  It looks just fine. 

Before The Painter began, he pressure washed the whole house.  A guest even commented that looked like we had changed up our front porch.  Nah, we just washed it.  Amazing what a good cleaning will do.

Even though all the paints are the exact same color, The Painter has not tried to ease past some spots to make his job shorter and easier.  He has climbed high ladders and squatted to the ground uncomfortably to paint everything.  The doors and touch ups are today.  All this means, the time for his payment for his services is near.  I'm sure he's looking forward to that.  :)

My spiritual life is a lot like this painting job.  Things get "dirty and worn looking" and I need a refreshing and cleaning.  I don't want anything different or new spiritually, I just often need to brush on the reminder of what I really want my "house" to look like.  I have to go high and low often for this job.  I have to work on it in the heat, sweating as I brush on the fresh color.  At the end of the "job", I have a life that pleases my owner and the payment is sweet.  

My house is light gray with white trim and my doors are red.  The main thing I notice now when I drive in the driveway is that it looks like home.  I want my spiritual house to BE home for my Lord and Savior and I want him to BE home for me.  

The physical painting and spiritual fixing are similar....cleaning, renewing, restoring.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.....Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation..."     Psalm 51:10, 12

Consider....