What’s Under Your Wallpaper?
Moving has provided so many valuable lessons for me. I feel like a broken record writing once again about something that moving has taught me, but these are the lessons God is working in me, so I am sharing them with you.
Our new-to-us home is twenty years old, and many of the walls bear witness to this. From the kitchen to the bedrooms to the toilet room, the walls are adorned with twenty-year-old wallpaper. Now, I know wallpaper is making a comeback and have seen some cute designs; however, cute is not what is on my walls.
I recently began the tedious work of removing the wallpaper. I started in the half bath on the least visible wall. A friend had given me a spray bottle of wallpaper removal she had left over. I had my kids take turns going over the wallpaper with the scouring tool and then sprayed the area with the removal spray.
I wish I could say the wallpaper came off easily, but unfortunately, there was a lot of scraping, frustration, and many marks left on the wall from the scraper. Regrettably, I did more damage than good. I began to realize that the areas where it was coming off more easily were the areas I had completely soaked with remover spray. My hand was hurting from all the spraying, and I needed something different. I knew steaming could help remove wallpaper, so I grabbed my garment steamer.
My garment steamer is a travel-sized steamer that holds a mere six ounces of water. But it was like magic. Where I used the steamer, the wallpaper easily peeled off the wall.
That evening, I did what any smart woman would do and ordered myself a professional wallpaper steamer from Amazon. After all, I still had about a hundred walls from which wallpaper needed to be removed.
After my steamer arrived, I removed the remaining wallpaper from the bathroom walls. The process was actually enjoyable and satisfying. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls in long strips. I would steam the wall, starting at a corner, and remove large pieces at a time.
When I finished, the walls on which I had used the steamer were so smooth. There was nothing that needed to be repaired, and they looked new, like there had never even been any wallpaper on them.
In contrast, though, was the first wall, on which I tried using the spray and scraper. There were many little nicks and even a few large gashes in the wall. It looked beaten and bruised and was in desperate need of some plaster.
Now, here is what God is teaching me through this. The wallpaper is my old self. It is what was removed when I gave my life over to Christ. In my bathroom, there are two different versions of what remains: the smooth, perfect, like-new wall, and the beaten and bruised wall.
I think many of us, myself included, believe that when we accept Christ and turn from our old ways and old self, what is left is the beaten and bruised wall. But friends, that is simply not true. We are made new! Under your wallpaper, you are a perfectly smooth wall, ready for a fresh coat of paint with no patching needed.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5: 17-21 NIV)
Did you catch the “not counting people’s sins against them” part? It’s so hard for us in our humanness to not see our past sins, the knicks and gashes left in the wall, but that is not how God sees us. We are new creations!
Friends, if you have struggled with letting Jesus into your life, maybe it’s because you don’t want to expose what’s under your wallpaper. Maybe you fear the nicks and gashes that will be revealed. Know that Jesus loves you, and when he strips away your old self, a new and beautiful self will be revealed.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph 4:22-24 NIV)
The God of the universe created us to be like him in true righteousness and holiness! Let’s live like we believe that! I can’t wait to see what he teaches me when I begin painting these walls.
is living the full life with her husband, Jeff, four kids, and a dog in Metro Detroit. Heather enjoys reading, writing, coffee-ing, and serving in youth ministry. She was born a Jersey girl and feels most at home on a beach. She is the host of the monthly link-up, Share Four Somethings. You can join Heather on the journey to living the full life at www.heathergerwing.com.
Photograph © Ricardo Gomez Angel, used with permission
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