The Wonders of Paint

My sister has accumulated “antique” furniture in her dining room. They are pieces of different types of wood and different colors of wood. They are pieces that have been used, scratched, and abused. And she inherited some of the pieces.  But she liked the sizes and shapes of the pieces. If you looked at her dining room now, though, you’d never know the past of this furniture. She painted all of the pieces that new popular green color. Her dining room is beautiful.

This is the picture I thought of two weeks ago when my pastor Wade was explaining 1 Peter 4:8.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.”

Above all = before you do anything else, go here first

Love =* the love given to us by Jesus Himself to give to others

Each other = consciously prefer others

                                

Deeply = to the maximum potential, *stretched beyond what you think you can do

Because = this will produce this result

Love =* the love given to us by Jesus Himself to give to others

Covers = (*not absolves) hides, kept secret and not shouted out, veiled, *covered over

A multitude = a crowd, a big bunch, a great number

Of sin = Yes, that means *sins, failures,*stuff that people do that gets on your nerves

*This is what my pastor Wade explained (not exactly his words but how I understood it.)

If I go to love first when people do the things I don’t like, or hurt me, or hurt God, then my love for them will be stretched to deal with them or the incident the way God would want me to. Sometimes I’ll have to let it go and forgive. Sometimes I’ll have to confront. Sometimes I’ll  have to help with their learning curve. But always cover my responses with love.

Just paint over it with love.

Paint over their past sin.

Paint over your hurt feelings.

Then you will see their beauty.

The wonders of love