White is alright

I have lived in parsonages all my adult life. Parsonages are houses provided by the church for the pastor to live in. As much as we Methodists move around, they are essential for us. Imagine trying to sell a house every three to five years. And parsonage committees, out of courtesy to ministry families always paint all the walls in the parsonage - WHITE. They do this so that no matter what the style and color scheme of the next pastoral occupants, it will match. So, for the past 27 years I have lived a bland, WHITE existence.

I watch DIY and HGTV dreaming of an orange foyer, a royal blue master bedroom, and a sea foam master bath. But, no, these are not to be for me. Do you know the very worst thing about WHITE walls, WHITE carpet, and WHITE tile floors? They show dirt like you wouldn't believe!! Any little speck looks like 6 months of neglect in a WHITE house. And I have a red-haired dog and a yellow tabby! My husband works out in the yard in the red NC clay-mud. I wear tennis shoes that just love to collect "stuff" in all their nooks and crannies. Ergo, my house is rarely ever WHITE.

When we are born, God creates us like my parsonage - PURE WHITE. People are always talking about original sin, but originally, God created us blessed. But then, like my parsonage, life happens. And bit by bit, the dirt and dinginess of sin gets tracked all over out souls. Before we even know what happened, we look around one day and think "Wow! This place is a disaster area! When did it get this messed up?" Praise God we don't have to do the heavy lifting! All we have to do is give it to God! Honest! That's really all we need to do. Either piece by piece or all at once, we turn the crud of our life over to Jesus Christ, our only Savior, and He knows just what to do. We panic and get overwhelmed when we try to handle it ourselves (yet for some reason we still try!). For Jesus, it isn't even a challenge. I mean, the man conquered death, for Pete's sake!

Yesterday, as I walked up the sidewalk to my front door, I saw a magnolia in bloom. A beautiful WHITE flower against a dark green leaf. And I realized the power and beauty of WHITE-it shows us there is such a thing as perfection to strive for, it reminds us of our original blessing, and it brings us face-to-face with a perfect Savior waiting to free us from sin and nurture us into a beautiful WHITE blossom for God.

"He made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin." I Corinthians 1:30b