the colour of grace

This Christmas break i have been trying (key word: trying) to paint my room. And the process is going slowly, because at the same time i am working, trying to get all my ISUs done, and hanging out with my family and friends. sometimes painting my room seems pointless to me because I (a) don't have the time and (b) am going off to university in 8 months. But today i was looking back on something i wrote in my journal about colour and it made me see that something as pointless and seemingly meaningless as painting a room, can actually make you think about things in a different way.
God is an artist. and an amazing one at that. But the difference between the way God does art, and the way i do art? When i paint and i want to change the colour of something (my room for example) i first have to fill in the holes, sand out all the rough spots, and then prime and put two coats of paint on. When i paint a wall, i don't take the previous paint off, i just cover up what used to be there. Then there's God. When he paints he does pretty much the same thing: he fills in the holes, sands out the rough spots, and prepares to apply the colour. But instead of just putting colour on top of the existing clour. He takes off the old colour completely.
"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." ~ Ephesians 4: 22-24
That verse doesn't say, "cover up the old self with the new self and hide the way that God never intended you to be." Instead it says to put off the old self. We don't just cover up our faluts and sins, instead we totally get rid of them. God doesn't just cover up the colours underneath, he removes them so that we can literally become a new person. We aren't just a wall that's covered with a new layer of paint, we are made into a new work of art entirely.
Sometimes i think that maybe he doesn't even paint. Maybe God is more like an art restorer. Maybe God fills in all the holes and evens out the rough spots, and then while taking off the old colour, reveals the true self that was there all along. We were created to worship and love God. We are created in his image. So maybe, underneath the colour of sin, our true colours are trying to shine through and Jesus Christ is the one who acts as the tarnish remover and takes all the dirty and ugly colour away to reveal our true, pure beauty.
Well, however you choose to look at it, God is still an artist. And he paints each of us a unique colour. Life gets to us, the devil gets us, sin own's us. But then God comes in and makes the life of slavery to sin die, and creates in us the life that we were intended to live.

"paints mix. new colours emerge. take you. add God. be God's colour. be fully you."