The Coverup

A couple of months ago we did some remodeling in our living room. The couch we had for about three years was still good but it was SO heavy! I could not move it to clean behind it and it was too low to the floor to clean under it! There were recliners in each end but they weren't really comfortable. Sooooo...we found someone who needed a couch and gave it to them. Then I started looking for a small love seat and small recliner to put in the same space that the couch had been in. We are extremely limited with space so I had to make it fit or do without!

I found a dark brown fabric/leather love seat that Benny was o.k. with. He is the one who sits there. I picked out a small beige recliner for myself. If Benny had liked recliners we would have just gone with two of those. The combo seemed to just fit....both the room and our individual tastes.

But then we began to notice that ANY little piece of lint or grass that got in the house somehow made it's way to that brown love seat! I tried lint rollers, lint brushes...you name it. A good brushing with a plain hand towel proved to be the best cleaner. Not wanting to have to deal with that every day, I decided to get a COVERUP for the love seat. I could not find anything that I liked in the stores so bought a pattern in Walmart and just made one. It's pretty cool. Now I can just take it off, throw in the washer, dry it and put it back on. And if company comes, I can take it off and the loveseat is already all nice and clean!

We had a missionary from Brazil, Bro. Mike Ring, visit our church recently. He had with him a sheepskin from Brazil which he used in an illustration. He said that he tells the Brazilian people the story of two mama sheep and two baby sheep. A disaster happened and one mama sheep died and the baby of the other mama sheep died. The little lamb was too young to eat grass so the shepherd knew that it would die if it didn't have milk to drink. He took the surviving lamb to the mama sheep who had lost her own lamb hoping she would adopt the orphan. But after smelling of him, she pushed him away. Now the little lamb had no hope. He was going to die. But the shepherd had an idea. He went and found the body of the little dead lamb and took the wool from his back. Then he draped the wool over the head and back of the little orphan lamb and took it back to the mama sheep. This time when she smelled of it, it smelled just like her baby and she let him nurse with no more problems. The baby lamb had been adopted because of the "COVERUP" the shepherd had placed on his back!

Bro. Ring then likened that to what happens to us when we get saved. Before salvation we "smell" like the world to God. He won't feed and nourish us and give us life. That is until we turn from the world and turn to Jesus Christ and accept His gift of eternal life. At that point Christ gives us a COVERUP... His own righteousness. Then when God "smells" of us, we smell just like His Son Jesus Christ and He takes us into His eternal family. Not because of anything we have done, but because of all that Jesus Christ did for us!

I'm so glad Jesus Christ has covered my sins and given me eternal life!

"Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." Romans 4: 7

Who do you smell like? The world? Or Jesus? Your eternity depends on your answer!

Marilyn