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A Clean Brush




A while back, I wrote about each day being a blank canvas. A new start and the opportunity for a fresh beginning. Although I do believe this is true, I also know that we have a tendency to begin painting that new canvas with old brushes, contaminating a potentially fresh start with the residue and grime of the past. Although the day begins anew, we drag dirt from the past into the present and stain the future.

It’s not enough to see each day as a fresh start if I, as the brush, am still polluted by the past. Just as a mix of different colors on a brush creates a dark smear, obscuring the pure white of the canvas, the tarnish of the past can blind me, preventing me from seeing what could be because I am held back by what has been. Just as putting new wine in old wineskins is a recipe for disaster (Matthew 9:17), painting on a pure surface with a contaminated brush presents its own pathway to discouragement and frustration.

God provides us with the chance for a fresh start and a new beginning to paint something beautiful and wonderful, but we can’t do it with the dirty, old brush we’ve always used. A fresh start deserves a crisp, clean brush.

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