Our ongoing refinishing project is coming along. Last night we tackled the hardwood floor after I got home from work. It went pretty well. I started by using an edging sander around the outer rim of the room and in the closet, using several different grits of sandpaper. Next, I sanded into the corners using a small finishing sander. I then I sanded the bulk of the floor with a drum sander and finished it off by using a 12" x 18" vibratory sander to smooth off any residual marks from the other three sanders.

There were some slight gouges, some water stains from who knows what, and some paint spots to remove. I worked at removing all of the spot and stains as best I could. Try though I may have, I just couldn't get them all out. Most of them disappeared with the work, but the only way to get them all out would have required that I sand the bedroom floor down to the point where it wouldn't be able to join with the hallway floor. There were just too small water stains that wouldn't come out.

The sanding process took about four hours. After that I vacuumed the floor and the room thoroughly and wiped the floors with a tack cloth, which is essentially a cheese cloth coated with a resinous substance to make it sticky, so that when you lightly pass over the window sills, mop boards and flooring, any particulate matter you may have missed with the vacuum is picked up. Trouble is, you just can't see every flaw no matter how long you labor at it. There will always be imperfections. It's like wearing a white shirt and eating spaghetti in a darkened restaurant. Things can look great while you're still in the dark room, but when you walk out into the bright light of day you've got stains on your shirt that you didn't even realize were there.

The job is about as good as I could do it, but it isn't perfect. I know from experience that it wouldn't be perfect if the floors were newly lain and finished by professionals. You can work hard to get it as close as you can to perfect, but perfection will never come. You can pay somebody to get it 'perfect', but the perfection you pay for is qualified, an illusion. You can get down on your knees and still see a hair, a piece of grit, a paint chip or a glop of finish where it shouldn't be. You can't pay for perfection in this world, but this world was paid for by perfection.

We're just like the hardwood floor I refinished. We're full of flaws, and we're 'stained' with our sin. We can work as hard as we possibly can for as long as we possibly can to remove our own stains and imperfections, but we will still be imperfect.

When Jesus went to the Cross on our behalf and in our place He paid for our sins with His own perfect blood, and when we accept this gift He offered to mankind, we can face the brightest light to shine on our imperfections, and all that will be seen, because of His selfless love, is His stainless perfection.

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.Romans, 8:1