My grandson received his first colouring book with pride. He was more interested in the crayons than the book at first. He drew lines randomly all over the page but eventually got the hang of it. One day he discovered that walls and furniture can fulfil the same purpose as a book.
His mom cleaned the walls and dusted him. He discovered that there is a right and a wrong way of doing things.
At my age it feels as if I am using a colouring book as well. Every day starts with the same pictures, lines and figures, just like every other day before. All I have to do is to fill it with colours.
Every day is very special and we have been given these days to decorate them with special colours. Sometimes we apply the wrong colours or go outside the borders of the picture and yes, even mess up the walls and furniture too.
Many years ago a woman by no name other than sinner, did something different. She learnt that Jesus was in town. It was not mentioned what she had done but we can imagine she had messed up many walls and furniture. She probably felt like an old used and misused colouring book herself.
When she noticed Jesus, she knew in an instant that He will change her life. She took an albaster flask with fragrant oil and went to the house where Jesus stayed; she entered and knelt down at His feet.
Suddenly tears came pouring down. She washed His feet with her tears and wiped it off with her beautiful long hair. Then she kissed His feet tenderly again and again and anointed them with the valuable fragrant oil. She was indeed well aware of the mess she has made of her life and somehow had faith that Jesus can change everything.
Jesus forgave her sins and told her that her faith in Him has saved her.
Any person who has regret and sorrow for writing on walls or furniture knows how precious Jesus is. The older a person gets, wasted pages of messed up colouring books pile up in our lives and somehow writes a Curriculum Vitae that makes us cringe when we look at it. It is only then that we realise why this nameless woman in Luke 8, gave Jesus all she had left.
Jesus cleans every page and wall and then He gives us a new chance to draw new pictures in a brand new book with blank pages. Then Jesus shows us that we are the pencil and crayons in His hand, if only we would allow Him to use us.
Then the first picture we touch might be one of a lonely neighbour or poor beggar. We would not only alter the picture but colour their lives with a new friend and some clothes and food and smiles. A stray dog would be touched and cleaned and fed using different colours. The old nagging landlord would be given a brand new smile.
At the end of the day, it would be indeed one in a million. Soon we will learn that God already supplied us with all the abundant colours. All we have to do is follow the footprints of Jesus. Everyone who crosses our path would receive a touch of colour… if we have faith in Jesus, just like the nameless woman did.