Love Covers

This is a photo of the window in our bathroom at home. Every once in awhile, I take a look at this and shake my head. It's actually a window into the differences between my wife Amy and me. I tend toward perfectionism. She is more relaxed and carefree. I want to get things done "right" (that is, perfect), no matter how long it takes. She wants to get it done fast and move on to the next adventure. This often results in conflict. What's in this picture, you might ask? When we painted our house a couple of years ago, I put wood putty in a gash in this window's frame. I had planned to come back and sand it down until it was smooth. Amy painted right over it. Why, I sometimes think, wouldn't she have taken the four seconds it would have taken to sand it down? It makes no sense to me on one level. But on another one, a deeper one, it makes a lot of sense. God is sanctifying me, lovingly trying to rip out the perfectionistic, critical aspects of my heart. He's trying to let me see the blessing I have in my dear Amy. She gets more done than any other woman I've met. She spoils me in letting me focus on my calling in a way unlike most men in the world. That explains why she was painting the window in the first place. She's taught me that there are things far more important than having flawless window frames.

I think this window is actually less a picture of her inadequacies as it is an image of how Amy treats me. I am a deeply flawed, difficult man. I'm the gash in the window frame. I'm the glob of wood putty pressed into it. She is the white paint that graciously covers over my sin, accepting me for who I am, loving me despite my warts, complementing and challenging me in so many ways. 1 Peter 4:18 says, "Love covers over a multitude of sins." That's Amy. That's just how she rolls. Father, forgive me so much for so often magnifying hers. What a gift she is to me! Thank you for my dear Amy.