Brush Strokes

How can painting a kitchen make me so tired when someone else did the painting? I guess it was all the prep work and the after-work. I’m afraid I have something of a “Cracker Barrel” kitchen with my collections of signs, bowls, pitchers and kitchen décor, not to mention loaded-down pot racks, art work and baskets. My husband and I denuded the kitchen for the painter, then before we put it all back together everything had to be washed, cleaned, or dusted. And of course, culled and rearranged. I am exhausted, but having everything look so fresh and clean made it worth it!

My husband had gotten a head start a few days ago when he decided to organize my cabinets (his way). After a painstaking couple of hours, he told me to come and look. Every cup was turned upside down individually on the shelf; every mixing bowl was also upside down, sometimes with another on top, but other than taking up a lot of shelf space, the dish side looked pretty good. And he did a good job of sorting the glassware into the proper sizes. But when I looked in the grocery cabinet, I didn’t recognize a thing. He had taken everything from its respective package and put it into a gallon zip-loc bag! I knew he intended to do this with cereal, but I thought he would encase the whole box in a bag. Now I could only guess at cereal type, and other wax paper bag-enclosed-within-a-bag contents.

Last night, it had gotten chilly after supper, so I made a cup of hot chocolate. The mix was sugar-free, and I wanted to disguise the taste of artificial sweetener, so I tried to find the marshmallows. Scooting things around, I at last found them behind a bag of cornstarch (which I recognized from the piece of torn cardboard box displaying the word, “Cornstarch,” he had placed inside.) Later, I heard Howard yell, “These cabinets are already getting messed up!” Bless his heart. Maybe it’s because everything is out of my reach! (Actually, the reason he did all this is we had seen a little squeaker, but it’s been gone for two weeks now!)

Kitchens get messy. (After all, it’s the power house of the home!) Life gets messy, even our spiritual life (after all, it’s the power house of our being)! Thankfully, we can let Someone Else do the painting. He is the Master Painter whose love covers a multitude of sins. We must be willing to get rid of the dust and clutter of our spirits and submit to the broad strokes of His loving hand. Then, restored and refreshed, it’s up to us to maintain our daily relationship, to be quick to clean up the spills, for we have an Advocate with the Father, John 2:1. He has already done the hard part.