The Wall

This section of the kitchen wall in our Western Way house used to be covered in red marker.  Thanks to the amazing Magic Eraser, it's now perfectly clean with no sign of Victoria's artwork anywhere.  I remember calling Jeri a few days ago when I was traveling to pick up the older kids from Grandma and Grandpa Metheny's house, hearing the standard chaos in the background, and listening to Jeri tell me that Victoria had just unleashed her inner Salvador Dali on the kitchen wall with her bright red Crayola marker.  "Par for the course," I thought to myself.  Anyone who has spent any time around this little girl understands that she is the literal denotation of Terrible Twos.  They don't put her picture next to the definition of Terrible Two, they insert her mugshot and don't bother with the definition.  Jeri and I often joke that she's lucky she was born with a smile that would light up the darkest of rooms because if she wasn't so darn cute, she might actually never emerge from Time Out.  Anyway, Jeri and I finished our conversation and I hung up the phone, only to think to myself within a few seconds that I needed Jeri to take a picture of the red marker on the wall so that I could add Victoria's masterpiece to my blog and write about my "sweet" little terror and her artistic antics.  Of course, by the time I called back a mere 30 seconds later, Jeri had already turned to her beloved Magic Eraser and returned the wall to its previous state.  30 seconds!  Had I been home with the kids instead of Jeri, I would have likely spent the first few minutes having a "discussion" with Victoria about the difference between the wall and paper, then followed that up by drinking a Mountain Dew, putting the kids to bed, making some cookies, and then (possibly) trying to find some paint to cover up the red marker.  Don't know that Magic Eraser would have even crossed my mind.  At first I was disappointed that I didn't get my picture...would have been a perfect way to describe Victoria to the 3 people who read this Blog.  As I thought a little more about the story, it hit me that the clean wall would be an even better picture.  This perfectly clean wall has a great deal of meaning to me.  It was covered in red marker at one point, which means that I have 4 insane but wonderful kids who have a home where they feel safe, loved, and happy, and where they know they can make messes and still be loved and accepted (and perhaps slightly reprimanded from time to time).  It's now clean, which means that I'm blessed with an amazing wife who has made every house, apartment, and other building we've lived in (just moved in to #8 in 10.5 years of marriage) in to a terrific home full of love and support, and who has never in the history of our married life let a mess go more than 10 seconds without being addressed.  Perhaps the greatest principle the wall illustrates, though, is that of repentance.  Whose life isn't covered in red marker from time to time?  Who doesn't need the Magic Eraser of Repentance to clean up the mess we make every day.  As I look back on my life and the marks I've made, I'm reminded that without the sacrifice Christ made for me, my walls would be covered in red. 

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  -  Isaiah 1:18

I was talking with a good friend recently and during our conversation, my mind was taken back to the time in life when my walls were as red as they have ever been.  I thought of the despair I felt, of the loneliness of sitting in the corner with the marker in my hand, feeling like everyone was looking at me, laughing at me, yelling at me for coloring on the walls and making such a mess.  As quickly as these thoughts ran through my mind, they turned to the sweet day nearly 4 years later when I sat with my Jeri in the mission home in Albuquerque and watched/listened as the last shades of red were wiped clean with the Magic Eraser.  As hard as I might try, I'll never be able to fully explain the amazement and joy I felt that day.  How grateful I was and am for the friends and family who carried me through the lowest of lows and who celebrated with me during the highest of highs.  How thankful I am for a loving Heavenly Father who sent his Son to turn our red to pure white.

We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today.  Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever.  -  Joseph B. Wirthlin

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