As a recent project, my wife and I decided to touch up some high traffic areas in our home with fresh paint. Each of us walked around one morning, with brush and paint can in hand, covering over blemishes high and low.
We finished the job as planned and were quite proud of our work. But there was a little problem: we didn’t mark where we painted. It’s hard to tell wet paint from dry of the same color, you know?
Well, I must have brushed against some fresh paint walking into the laundry room, because, next thing I know, my wife tells me I have a racing stripe across my backside! Later, our little terrier comes up to me sporting a white-tipped tail she didn’t have before. It actually looked quite fashionable on her.
I now know why signs that say Wet Paint, Biohazard, and Radioactive were invented.
Hey, someone needs to come up with a type of paint that goes on light pink and slowly turns white as it dries. I would buy some of that.
Anyway, after these two mishaps, we managed to avoid any further contact with wet paint, but the quote lover in me was intrigued. Searching for just the right words to describe our dilemma, I remembered these:
“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”
Robert Burns
This actually comes from the poem, To a Mouse. Burns wrote it after plowing up a mouse’s nest in a field in November 1785. The rodent ran away unharmed, but the poet felt bad–knowing he destroyed its home just before the brutal Scottish winter.
But who knows what really happened to our little grey friend after the accident. Maybe it ran straight to Robert Burn’s house and moved in!
Being a child of God doesn’t make one immune to ‘mouse-haps.’ In fact, I’ve survived quite a few. I bet you have also.
Maybe that’s why my wife and I gave the poor mouse in Burn’s poem a happy ending. Like the Psalmist said, “As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more (Psalm 71:14).
Have you ever experienced a Romans 8:28 situation–something that seemed ALL bad right when it happened, but later turned out for the good?
Maybe our present circumstances are like wet paint–we need to let them dry before we brush up against them. This takes faith in God’s sovereignty, but sure beats getting paint on your backside!
Here are two of my favorite, let-the-paint-dry scriptures. Please share yours in the comments, if you like.
“The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever–do not abandon the work of your hands. –(Psalm 138:8)
“But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “you are my God.” My times are in Your hands.” — (Psalm 31:14-15a)
God’s Child
Things don’t always turn out the way we think they should.
Sometimes, we look to heaven and say, “God, it’s just no good.”
Until somewhere from the silence…comes a voice of love
Saying, “You’re My child, and that’s enough.”
When you’re God’s child it’s enough.
He is all you need when the going gets tough.
It doesn’t make much difference if the sailing’s smooth or rough.
You’re God’s child, and that’s enough.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” — (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Davids Daily Dose 
Comments
29 responses to “Wet Paint”
I’m glad it spoke to you, Aimee. I wrote it a few months ago (at least), but it’s totally God that it applies to your situation NOW. Thank you for sharing.
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This was such a great post and after all my recent God lessons made me tear-y. He’s so good and faithful and makes everything … EVERY THING… work out for our good.
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I’m hanging on to these scriptures, too. Copied and pasted for easy access. Thanks, David.
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Truth. Thanks, Chris.
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Smooth seas never made a skilled sailor. God is always in the process of refining us and making us better little by little.
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Yes, indeed. Thank you for reading and commenting. Blessings.
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Love this post, David. You started with a paint job and ended up with an “eternal brush” whose paint never dries.
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Thanks!
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Beautiful.
Sent from my iPhone
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Thank you for reading and commenting. I appreciate your thoughts. God’s best to you. 🙏❤️
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In God’s eyes, we all are enough and that is truly beautiful & comforting. Having mistakes, mishaps , imperfections, sin, ugliness that we are shameful for others to discover , all these God accepts and forgives lovingly. When everyone rejects, he accepts with open arms. Thanks David for an inspiring post & for sharing God’s words of hope and life.
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Thank you for reading and commenting. Blessings.
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Thanks, Alan. God Bless you, brother.
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Love the analogy! Thank you for another timely piece! Blessings to you!🙏💕
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Great post brother! It is amazing how often we learn from such mishaps, and I am sure we give our Father to have a chuckle in the moment too.
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AMEN, Deborah! I didn’t think of that scripture, but it’s great one. Blessings to you.
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I am confident of this very thing. He who began a good work on you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6. The paint will finally dry!
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Amen, Pastor Pete. That’s a great scripture and it fits!
The Christian life is more like a marathon than a sprint. Blessings.
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Thank you, Sally. The paint on my pants came clean and we were able to clean Sami’s (our terrier) tail before it dried. She was not happy about it either!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
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Yes, indeed. God’s timing is always best, but sometimes hard to wait for. Blessings to you, and thank you for commenting.
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Thank you, Betty. I appreciate your kind words. I enjoy reading about your travels!
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I will definitely check it out for next time! Thank you!
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Thank you. Lowe’s is my go to home improvement store!
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…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith. Hebrews 12:1b-2
Jesus shoots off the starting pistol at the beginning of our walk and stands holding the tape at its finish cheering us on!
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Well-written, David, and funny too. 😁
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I really like the analogy of the wet paint. Our time is indeed in Gods hands.
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This is a beautifully written and an encouraging post. It does bring to mind an Abraham Lincoln quote, something like, – when I had no where else to go, I went down on my knees. Thanks for your post, and have a good day.
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White drying paint that is! Oops.
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Good stuff and well Lowes Home Improvement for the paint.
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