I spent the past two days painting the walls of a client’s master bedroom.  It seemed a pretty straight forward task.  But I underestimated the time and effort it would take.

When I arrived, the walls were very clean.  My client had done a wonderful job of filling in any nail holes and moving all the furniture to the center of the room.  She removed curtain rods and their accompanying hardware.  It was the perfect palette to begin painting.  And she had picked out two beautiful colors that I was anxious to work with.

But what I didn’t anticipate was the dryness of the existing paint and the sometimes deep texture on the walls.  A combination that made every brush or roller stroke of paint that I applied seem to soak in as if the walls were gulping down a much needed drink.  I would paint.  The white would pop through in the form of tiny dots.  I would paint again.  Still more white dots.

I applied two coats and then would stand back to check my work.  And still, I would need to go back and cover another spot here and there.  I’ll go back again this morning to do one last check to see if another night on the wall reveals any new “breakouts”.

Spending 14 hours on a really high ladder with just you and a paint brush, gives a person time to ponder.  And the paint reminded me of my life.   I offer Jesus the  palette of my life. All I have to give him is a colorless, dry wall.  A thirsty wall in dire need of some color.  And as He begins his artwork in my life, I begin to see the changes.  The color He applies brings warmth and depth.  It takes boring and makes it inspiring.  It takes plain and makes it beautiful.

But as beautiful as the color is, there are still pieces of me that get in the way of that loveliness.  Rough edges and textures that don’t allow the color to penetrate.  Parts of my ugliness pop out here are there in the form of attitudes.  Bad choices.  Selfish thoughts and motives.

And so Jesus goes to work again.  Painting and applying more color so that His work in me becomes more evident, so that people are drawn to His glory and aren’t distracted by my mistakes, failures and imperfections.

Towards the end of yesterday, I was sure that I would never be done with all the little white spots that needed my attention.  And I’m sure Jesus feels the same about me.  I am an endless project, in need of touch ups and re-do’s and do-overs.  But lucky for me, Jesus is the master artist and loves the task of applying color and performing transformations.  And may He never stop working on me….

Philippians 1:6 – And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.