THEY PAINTED THE POT HOLE

A maintenance crew was recently in our neighborhood refreshing the painted lines on the road.  For a couple of years I have been watching a pot hole develop at the edge of the road near my house.  It started out as a small inconsistency in the pavement, but it has grown.  Now is it about three feet long, 14 inches wide, and 4 inches deep on one side, 6 on the other.

The day they painted the stripe I was impressed by the fresh white against the black asphalt.  Until I got to the pot hole.  Then the paint more or less disappeared.  It wasn’t the painters’ job to repair the road, so they just painted right over the hole.  I went back to take a picture of it.  Since the pot hole is made of dirt and mud, the paint hasn’t stuck.

Sometimes we humans just like to paint over the pot holes in our lives.  Instead of really fixing a problem, we hope that some cosmetic touch will suffice.  It won’t.  That pot hole in the road isn’t going away this winter.  In the spring, it will be bigger.

Every road develops pot holes.  Every person has holes that need fixing—holes that tend to get bigger if left untended.  There is one named Jesus who doesn’t paint over pot holes.  He names sin for what it truly is.  Then he fills those pot holes with forgiveness and love.  If anything, Jesus uses the red of his blood to paint us white as snow.

As we enter a new school/program year in the church, people come back in greater numbers.  We are reminded both of our pot holes and of the grace given to us that we may overcome those holes.  We can't ignore the holes.  They only get bigger.  And we can't paint over the holes.  The paint will not stick.  There is a better answer--being made whole in Christ.