38. Anointing of humans with colors by Allah.
In the earlier days there used to be a ritual wherein a person embracing a different religion is anointed with colored water and given a water wash to cleanse him of his previous beliefs. Though this is not required to embrace Islam.
Here anointing is done on the body of humans, but Allah anoints the hearts of humans who embrace Islam is what is referred with literary grace.
The anointed color on the body gets erased within a period, but the anointing by Allah in the hearts of people remains till death is what is meant in this verse (2:138) of the Quran. (Al Quran (2:150).