Finding God On The Other Side Of A Painted Room

Our house sold this summer with unexpected swiftness, it only took 3 hours. We were then faced with the mixed blessing of needing to find a new home immediately.

The first weekend we spent house hunting was a tour of all the houses still left on the market, the houses no one wanted.

One house had holes in the walls and smashed mirrors from wild renters. In one we found about 200 fruit flies that had died in the bathtub because of rotting food left behind by the previous owners. Another was so close to the highway we could barely hear each other talk in the backyard.

Discouraging, to say the least.

Mothers never truly stop nesting and the idea of my beautiful family living in these messes was more than my frazzled nervous system could handle.

I began to feel faint in the summer heat and sick to my stomach with the available options. As I felt the panic begin to rise, I whispered under my breath,

“God - you invented the idea of home. Please send help.”

We pulled up to the last home of the day and as I walked in I was met with the most beautiful feeling of peace and cool. I actually let out an audible sigh of delight.

The home needed updating and there were things to be fixed but it had a fireplace, an apple tree, and a grape vine. I had this mysterious ethereal experience of total consolation. A complete turn around from feeling overwhelmed in the car a few minutes before.

The other houses had felt scary and uninviting but this house felt finally like home. So - we bought it.

And the other day I began painting to update it and make it our own.

As I poured the paint and began to cut in the wall - I was gripped with fear. I suddenly felt so afraid that all the peace I had enjoyed in this home would be immediately lost if I changed anything. I was scared I was about to wreck everything that was good and I would never be able to get it back.

Why is it that we believe that the good things in life are so fragile? That joy and peace are weak rather than robust or unyielding. Yet, we easily believe that darkness is so powerful.

I wanted to hold on to the peacefulness - at all costs. It seemed better to live with a few broken toilets, a warped kitchen countertop, and dingy painted walls than risk losing the peace by changing it.

In an attempt to defy the lies that were strangling my soul, I began to paint. As I painted God started to show me that the peace I felt that first day had nothing to do with the house and everything to do with Him. The calm delight was His presence, His guidance, and His answer to my prayer for help.

And He was never going to be lost, no matter what colour I painted the walls.

God’s peace is not fragile.

As things change around us, God does not change. And yet we foolishly believe that we could do something that could cause all His goodness to be lost forever.

The truth is - you and I are just not that powerful.

I recognize that the painting of my home is a very small change in the light of all that life might throw at me. You and I have and will face much greater changes in our lives. But that which is true in my small story is true in the greater ones.

God is the same God on the other side of a painted room.

His goodness does not change based on circumstances, His character is not fleeting nor His promises unfaithful. He is steadfast and true.

Today, I will remind you and when I need to hear this in the future - perhaps you can remind me.

He is the same God on the other side of any change because “he does not change like shifting shadows". (James 1:17) And the gift of His presence is available to us because He is always present with us. He has been the same since the beginning of all time and He will be the same on going into the eternal future.

Nothing we can do can change that.

May you be given hope that He will be the same on the other side of whatever change you are facing. May you know the steadfast and unfailing strength of God’s good gifts and may God’s peace guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.