Grace in a Cloudless Sky

We had known for a long time that the color of our house (mustard with brown shutters) was dated.
After residing in our home for 11 years we had no idea how many years before our arrival the previous owners had endured the condiment color through rain, wind, and sun.

A few weeks ago Steve had stated with apparent certainty that he was going to paint our house and he pointed to the week on the calendar when it was going to happen. Having heard the estimate from the professionals, and knowing his past experience painting to support our family, his plan seemed like a good idea but still overwhelming.

We drove around  the neighborhood taking note of what colors were paired by our neighbors. How do we choose colors that are distinctive but not too jarring a contrast to the other houses? Two visits to our favorite paint store and 4 sample paints later we still were uncertain. After the third visit or was it the fourth we returned home with a brochure with suggested paint combos. In spite of repeatedly rejecting any color green we came home with a sample of a green and what we thought was a brick red. At last the decision had been made.

For the week I was chief babysitter and cook. My daughter Jessica worked with Steve fairly steadily all week. Her husband Brian, and my 2 sons worked as much as their schedules allowed. In spite of having to clean the house by hand while waiting for a replacement part for a pressure washer, by Saturday the majority of the house was finished.

Neighbors came over to tell Steve how much they liked the new colors. These are people we usually only see from a distance. The color we picked for the shutters instead of being brick red was more of mixture of orange with a bit o brown. A friend called it terracotta. I probably wouldn't have picked it if I had known what it would have looked like but it is the perfect color to go with the green.

Let's see. We had family members working side by side towards a common goal, and colors picked rightly beyond our ability to do so. That's not all. The week before I had begun a close watch on the weather predictions for the week. It looked like there could have been rain about 4 of the days. We looked out tentatively every morning and for all 6 mornings there wasn't any rain. On Sunday we made our way to church in a downpour. That was certainly God's grace.

To top it off on Monday of the next week God laid out an amazing illustration before our eyes. We had the part needed for the pressure washer. My son-in-law, Brian began the work of  cleaning our sidewalks and anywhere else in need. Everything he cleaned with the washer looks incredibly different. The color of the sidewalk and driveway is a lot lighter than it was before. Little stones that were invisible are now clearly present. We had no idea what lay under all that dirt. We thought the color we had seen every day was the normal color. Is that how we are? Are we ignoring "little" sins in our lives so much that that becomes the normal until God uses His pressure washer to clear it away?

It was certainly a grace filled week but isn't that true every week? We just need eyes that see.