Bumper Cars

This is the bumper that exchanged paint samples with the side of the garage. It sported blue stripes for a few weeks--a reminder of my sad backing up abilities. My loving husband noticed the scrape within 12 minutes of it happening. He asked what happened but was kind enough not to make a big deal out of it. (It wasn't like I had scraped the bumper on his car or anything.) Several weeks later, the youth group was having a car wash and one youth leader polished the blue paint off of the bumper, leaving just a few nondescript black scratches. When I saw this extraordinarily kind gentleman on Sunday, I told him how much I appreciated that act of paint removing kindness. And his response was, "That's Jesus." Say what? And then I was thinking how much like Jesus that was. When I am a big screw up, Jesus doesn't get mad at me and He doesn't yell at me and He doesn't keep asking me questions about it. He is kind and forgiving like the STP. But then He goes one step further and He patiently scrubs off the paint. The paint that no one else is willing to get close to. (Because maybe it will rub off on them or something.) The paint that I think I have to drive around with the rest of my life like some kind of penance for being a screw-up in the first place. Annnouncing to the world, "Steer clear. I can't back up!" You gotta love that kind of forgiveness.
Oh yeah, that's Jesus--the paint remover.