Hubby and I recently purchased a condo so we can move our aging parents to be near us, so we can help care for them.
It is a lovely condo and had a very nice modern paint color. However, since the Pacific Northwest where we live is usually grey and overcast most of the year, we decided to repaint the condo a bright cheery white.
In the process of repainting, we discovered that down behind the beautiful set of built-in shelving along the main living room wall … a wall heater was back there!
That is seriously a fire hazard!
We don’t know if the wall heater was broken … or if the thermostat to that wall heater was disabled … or what. But right away hubby turned off the circuit breaker to that particular thermostat.
Certain things should not be covered up.
Even if it is a beautiful set of built-in shelving to make the living room look awesome! Some things should not be covered up.
This same thing is true when it comes to life.
We want our life to look a certain way. There might be certain things about our life which we don’t like. So, we cover them up.
Just like the beautiful set of built-in shelving was a striking feature when we walked in the door as potential buyers of the condo … so also, in the same way, we cover up things in our life so that our life has great appeal when others first walk in the door of our life.
We look successful. We look like we’ve got it all together. Our life looks pretty awesome.
But some things in our life should not be covered up.
Some things in our life, if we cover them up and try to hide them … they eventually become a fire hazard.
Those things which we try to hide and cover up eventually wind up catching smolders in the hidden places of our life. Our relationship with our spouse or with those closest to us begins to smolder and smoke.
Our spouse and those closest to us aren’t quite sure why there are sudden problems in the relationship. They can’t figure out where all the smoldering and smoke is coming from.
They don’t know we have covered up something important about who we are.
Things at our job begin to smolder and smoke. What once used to be a successful career begins to smolder and smoke.
That hidden covered up part of our life which we are trying to hide with a façade of greatness is catching fire.
Those things which we try to cover up in our life could be anything.
It could be past trauma and hurt.
It could be addiction.
It could be a secret sin which we are trying to hide.
It could be insecurities.
It could be shame.
Whatever it is, it’s different for each person.
If we are going to have a healthy flourishing relationship with our spouse and those closest to us, we cannot cover up those parts of who we are. We have to be honest. We have to be open about these things in our life.
If we are going to have a healthy flourishing relationship with God our Maker, we cannot try to cover up these parts of who we are. We cannot ignore and cover them up trying to put on perfect pretenses. God knows all about it all anyway. And it is only when we clear away the cover up that we can experience healing from God in these areas.
Hubby and I are going to get a new heater to replace the old covered-up heater. We are going to have hubby’s buddy who is an electrician make sure everything is working correctly.
And with the heater no longer covered up, the living room will be a lot more comfortable during the wintertime … because there will be heat like there is supposed to be.
So also, in life when we remove the great cover up and let God take those broken places in our soul and bring healing to them, our entire life will function better. Our relationships with others will be a healthier and happier environment. There will be warmth in our life when the cold winds of winter blow.
