The Blessing of a Fresh Coat of Paint

         

          On Friday, April 20, 2018, I went with a few of my Soldiers to volunteer with the Augusta Parks and Recreation Department at the Magnolia Cemetery. We were tasked with repainting some park benches and sign posts. As I slowly moved from sign post to sign post I began to see that there was a lessons to be learned through this experience—the blessing of a fresh coat of paint.

          The signposts I painted were in dire need of a fresh coat of paint. It was obvious that many years, decades maybe, had passed since they had been painted. They were a faded gray color mixed with rust that made them blend in with the surrounding trees so well they almost disappeared. They were ugly, and looked almost hopeless. After I cleaned one, and applied a fresh coat of glossy black paint, it looked brand new. One of the easiest, least expensive, renovations that can be done is to apply a fresh coat of paint.

          As I continued painting and reflecting, I realized that the blessing of a fresh coat of paint applies to us as well (metaphorically speaking, please don’t put actual paint on yourself). There I was on a beautiful April morning in a cemetery surrounded by grave markers, trees, and quiet except for the sounds of birds singing, and I am struck by the juxtaposition of life and death; of beauty and sorrow. As I looked at the grave markers some very elaborate, and some merely a stone with a name, date of birth, date of death, and the dash in between, and as I watched how much of difference a simple coat of glossy black paint made on those old, faded, rusty sign posts, I learned the blessing of a fresh coat of paint—what seems like a disaster may be easier to refresh and renew than we think.

We humans are great at making things more difficult than necessary, especially when it comes to the life of faith. Receiving and living the abundant life God offers in and through Jesus is not easy, but it is simple. We simply need to say yes to Jesus, and no to self. We don’t need to “get our act together,” we need Jesus. The Old Hymn by Robert Lowry asks and answers the question, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Eugene Peterson paraphrased 2 Corinthians 5:17 this way, “What we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!” The blood of Jesus shed on the cross is all that is necessary for us to be made whole, and it is better than any paint job because it doesn’t just cover the past; in Christ we are made new. No matter how ugly, faded, and worn out we may feel, we can be renewed. “For in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him” (Colossians 1:19-21. NRSV).