Picture Perfect
I have a mirror that I received from my great aunt. It is a simple mirror. It’s maybe a foot square framed with a dark wood. The mirror may be about a hundred years old, so it may have some discoloring to it. It is not perfect and neither is the image that it reflects.
I notice that people need things to be perfect. The meal must be perfectly prepared and served at the perfect temperature. People think that they have to look perfect. Yesterday, I even passed a hair salon called Perfect Image Salon. People spend time and effort manipulating pictures with filters and angles, to make sure that they look perfect. I see people driving perfect cars, yet they have a beat-up place that they live in, but in people’s eyes they look perfect.
Nobody’s life is perfect. So many things have flaws. Each person has flaws. People are addicted to drugs, alcohol, exercise, looking at images on the internet, and so many other things that we may never know. So many people say that they are fine and do not have any flaws. Well, their flaw is that they are lying. Every person has flaws. Do you really believe everything that people put on social media? Do you realize how much time they spend trying to make one part of an ordinary day seem like the best that you have ever seen?
It is through our imperfections that we can be used. God knows our imperfections and knows that we can be approachable to other people through our imperfections, that they may also have. We may be too tall, too short, too thin, too fat, but we are still as God needs us. Our memory may not be perfect, sometimes that may be a good thing. We may not be perfect with skills either.
We may not be perfect doing certain skills. I may know how to do some minor auto repair, but I thank God for a great mechanic. I appreciate a doctor who is a good doctor. We need good accountants. I appreciate these people’s skills, but what do they lack.
I know that I am not perfect and I am good with that. Being imperfect helps me do some of my work because it helps me meet people, who may also be deficient in the same areas or they may be strong in my deficiencies. It starts conversations so that a level of trust is built, commonality.
When I do some art, it may not look perfect. When I evaluated firefighters, I had to fail students because they refused to listen to directions or lacked skills that they were being tested on.
No matter what we try to do and how we live our life, we are not perfect. We do not follow all the instructions we are given. We fail to follow everything that we are supposed to do according to the Bible, but God forgives us. It is through God’s grace that we have another chance. Sometimes we beat ourselves up and hold other people’s imperfections against them. God knows that we will never be perfect, but it is through our perfect imperfection that we can accomplish what we truly need to.
Please look at each person that you come in contact with and try to figure out where they shine in life, but also accept them for who they are, imperfections and all.
Stay safe,
Didymus McHugh
didymus-mchugh.com
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