We have needed to paint the interior walls of our house for some time now, an activity that somehow had been demoted from the active “to do” list to the passive “need to do” list. Those things are relegated to the somedays that never seem to arrive.
Late last June when we were staying at the home of one of Bill’s brothers and his wife, I admired the calming atmosphere of their bedroom. Asking for the name of the paint color, I realized that the shade of subtle grey was exactly the one I had chosen a few months before for our own room at home. It could look like this? Over the summer, we purchased the paint, and the two cans have waited patiently throughout the summer drought for the perfect opportunity, a rainy Saturday in autumn.
Last Saturday, it rained. Bill began painting as I ran to the grocery. With only one short wall completed, I was astonished at the difference it made in the look and feel of the room. “It’s beautiful,” I remarked. “Not yet,” Bill replied. “It’s not finished.”
We talked while he painted, and I watched a fresh coat of paint transform the space. The room was the same. But there is now something new and refreshing about it. If a fresh coat of paint can do that to a room, how different would a relationship look with forgiveness? Or a kind word instead of a critical one? Or a new attitude about an old difficulty? A splash of patience? Gentleness with a tired child?
I think I would be surprised. It could look like this?
It can be as simple as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5. 15-18, “See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances…” Easy for him to say, I thought, until I realized that Paul was probably writing this letter from prison. LORD, color my responses. It CAN look like this.
Sometimes what we need is not a new situation, but a new nature – a fresh coat of grace.
…we too might walk
in newness of life.
Romans 6.4
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