The painting of our classroom is finally finished.  I really don’t like to paint.  I’m not very good at it and no matter how many showers I take and how hard I scrub, I find reminders of the job for days afterward on me.  But I really love the newness of fresh paint on a wall.  It reminds me of how it is when we turn to our Father.  We are renewed and our hearts have a spiritual freshness, a clean slate if you will. We are free to decorate it with the love and care that He has provoked us to. The holes have been filled in and the scuffmarks of life have been covered by His grace.  The specks of ourselves may remain for a while, but when we scrub at them with prayer and meditation on His Word, they eventually are removed and replaced with His love.  It takes hard work but the end results far out weigh the effort.