Photo: Mohammed Shaker

The cover over the front porch is ugly! Why did we spend hard earned money to have it built? These thoughts tumbled through my mind as I looked back at the house on my morning walk.

We had planned for weeks to have the cover built. My husband had carefully drawn a plan. We had finally found a builder who would so a good job at a fair price.

Monday morning the builder and his sons showed up early. They worked steadily all day, carefully measuring lumber and plywood, cutting boards, and pounding nails. They had even stayed late that evening to finish the project so they wouldn’t have to return another day.

The air was still, the sawdust had settled, the project was finished. The smell of wood lingered in the air. The boards were just where they were supposed to be. The builder had followed our instructions to the letter—but the result was ugly. The bare lumber was unsightly and looked stark next to the blue-gray house with white trim.

The following week my husband found a bucket of white paint in a corner of the garage. He attached a paint roller to a long pole. He spread some tarps over the concrete beneath the porch cover. Then he began painting. He painted most of the morning. He searched the garage again and found a paintbrush on his work bench and painted the trim. Finally, he was finished, and we stood back for a look.

The Final Touch

What a difference that coast of white paint made! The porch cover looked like it belonged now. No longer did it stick out like a patch of a bare earth in the lawn. Smiles covered our faces when we returned from a walk later that evening. The porch cover was a wonderful addition to our home after all!

Are there any porch covers in your life waiting for a coat of paint? Jesus wants to cover your unsightly sin with His precious blood. He wants to make you look totally different from the way you did before. The best part about His paint project is that He not only covers you but can make you brand new from the inside out.

When we look at ourselves and others, do we see the unfinished project with plywood and nails exposed? We need to ask God to give us new eyes to see the finished project—that looks like it really belongs in God’s kingdom.

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By Janean A. Lewis. Reprinted with persmission from Signs of the Times, July 2006. Copyright © 2006 by GraceNotes. All rights reserved. Use of this material is subject to usage guidelines.

Read more at the source: The Porch Cover

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Family First.