My Little Artist

Sweet little Levi seems to have a thing for coloring. He seems to know the moment a sibling pulls out the crayons, markers, or pencils, and he makes sure to get in on the action. The excitement on his 19-month-old face when he gets a chance to make a grand masterpiece is just precious... at least when he is coloring on paper.

We've been working on this for a while now, "Levi, we draw on paper... no, Levi, we ONLY draw on PAPER." But he seems to watch for the moment I turn away to create his masterpieces on his hands, on his legs, on whatever piece of furniture is within reach. Markers are by far his favorite. He just loves them so much that he has even been known to hide one or two in his pants so that they are accessible later when Mommy isn't watching so closely. I found this out the hard way a few weeks ago when a mysterious drawing appeared on my kitchen refrigerator. The dark purple sharpie marker was no where to be found, but the little culprit's purple hands gave him away. It wasn't until an hour or so later, when I discovered a new array of black sharpie sketches entangled with the purple ones on the fridge, that I realized that the permanent markers were cleverly hidden in his pant legs.

As I sat scrubbing away at his scribbles with my nailpolish remover tonight (at the advice of my wise mother-in-law) I was thinking about how much of my time as a mom seems to be devoted to cleaning away messes. Messes from everyday life, messes from unknowing infants, and messes from sly little toddlers... sometimes it seems like that is all I do!

I started thinking about the early believers and how much of their time was spent making sacrifices for the cleansing of their sins and I was reminded of Hebrews 10:11-18: ^"11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹²But when [Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. ¹³Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, ¹⁴because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy...¹⁸there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. "

Can I even imagine what life was like when sacrifice was such a part of everyday life.. when the cost of sin was so visible? Do I even see the markings that my sins leave all over my body and the people around me? Do I take for granted the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for me when I rush through my days trying to keep up with my responsibilities and cleaning up after my children? I think I do take it for granted... and I only hope that Levi's little markers will continue to point my heart to the gratefulness I feel right now for the way Jesus has wiped away my "not-so-permanent" marks and offered me the privilege of sitting with Him one day in my Father's presence.