Who is painting your posts?

We are working on the final steps of a pole barn and painting the posts attached to the lean to.  It would be easy to slap some paint on the posts and call it a day.  They would look great for a while, until the rain and moisture got into the cracks of the posts.  Then the posts would become weak from within.  So, we began the lengthy process knowing it would be worth it in the end. 

First, we had to get the calk gun out and methodically seal up every nook and cranny in each pole.  This was tedious work and every time I thought I had all the cracks covered, I would find another one.  At about the second pole it, I wondered why we had chosen such a large barn.  There were so many cracks in the poles.  The molding around the poles needed to be sealed as well.  Water looks for any vulnerable spot and seeps into the wood and splits it after time.

Next, we had to paint the poles to give them a fighting chance against the elements.  Two coats later and some paint in my hair, the poles started to look ready for the upcoming winter.  

The final step was to add a bit of color to match the pole barn.  It sounded easy at first, but with the coats of white paint underneath, the burgundy would just slide off.  It took two major coats for the burgundy to look the way I wanted them.  Mental note, do the burgundy first then the white around the pole next time. 

As I was going through this process, I heard my Heavenly Father speak to me.  Who is painting my post?  I am an impatient person and would like to slap on the paint and call it a day.  However, when I try to ‘look’ good on the outside by my efforts, the water seeps into me and causes damage.  The water in my life are the things that affect me every day.  Worry, doubt, self-deprecation, anger, and fear are just some of the things that get to our posts.

God instead, quietly works on us fortifying our posts, which is our lives, by caulking up the weak points and then painting them over with His mercy and grace.  We are then stronger with His handiwork than ours. 

How many of us are trying to paint our own posts instead of letting our Heavenly Father work in us instead?  Trust His process...

Isaiah 29:16 (NIV)

You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?

Philippians 1:6 (NIV)

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

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