Portraying Perfection

 

This evening Braxton and I got take out and brought it to a place a few miles from our house that we love to go. It has amazing views of the lake and sky and the sunset was beautiful tonight! I love to take walks down the road in front of this view. I can't get over how pretty it always is, no matter the season!

 

Tonight in particular, though, I noticed the trash that had washed up on the shore and had gotten caught in all the branches in the shallow water. It has rained a lot lately, so any trash that was on the shore is now floating in the water.

 

I was jogging down the road earlier, admiring the water and sky. As the road came to a curve and made the water's edge visible, I was shocked by how much debris was floating around.

From far away, the view looked gorgeous. But as I got closer, I was able to see a part of it I hadn't before- an ugly, undesirable part. In the picture above, the sunset is glowing pink and the reflection on the water is beautiful. But if you look very closely along the bottom, a ton branches and dozens of plastic bottles and wrappers are floating in the water. 

 

It made me think about us. We look on the lives of others and many times see only the desirable parts. A lot of us put on a façade to hide the unpleasant things about us. We shouldn't fall for the false image of perfection put on by others, nor should we try to present that image about ourselves. Because truth be known, we all have undesirable traits about us. We all have seen the ugly parts of life show up in our very own. None of us are faultless or flawless. At one point or another we forget appointments, we run late, we get in bad moods, we acquire a bad attitude or a bad habit, we use the wrong words, we get impatient. Sometimes we find ourselves swimming in debt or our relationship with a spouse or family member is on the rocks.

 

 From far away someone may seem to have a fantastic life. But behind closed doors, her heart may be broken and bruised. Have you ever seen another female and thought something along the lines of, "Women who look like that have it easy. They don't have to worry about their weight or their looks. She is so beautiful!" But if you could see her life under a microscope, you may very well see that she is anything but confident. She might never dream of going out without makeup, and worry about her weight. You might find eating disorders and deep rooted insecurity under the microscope as well.

A seemingly perfect marriage from the outside may be falling apart while no one else is looking.

A successful businessman may be doing all the right things when it comes to his career. He may have all the nicest and newest things money can buy, but if you look closely at his children, you'll see they feel unloved and abandoned by their absent father.

 

A lot of the time, we can choose how we want to portray our lives to the world. And a lot of the time, the rest of the world will fall for it. But if we were all honest, we would all admit that our lives are often messy. We are broken people, and our entire species is full of flaws. Romans 2:23 says ALL have fallen short.  John 16:33 says we WILL have tribulation in this world.

 

That is why we are all in need of a perfect savior.

 

We don't have to have it all together, or measure up to worldly standards, because we never will.

We don't have to try desperately to appear flawless to others, because no one on this entire earth is flawless-not one person. Jesus Christ is the only perfect one.

 

All good and perfect things come from above (James 1:17). By this, I know that anything good about me comes from Him. Any good thing that I do is for His glory. Even in my weakness, His power is made perfect! (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). He has all power to clean up the messiness of our lives and to mend and restore all things broken in us. But, how beautiful it is for us to allow Him to USE our brokenness, our mess, our suffering, and turn into a powerful testimony that can change our lives and even the lives of others- all for His glory. If we will let Him, and if we will be honest with our selves and with others, He can create something glorious out of our chaos.

 

Who would want to waste time trying to portray perfection or to fall for perfection in another mortal being when we have a Savior who is waiting for the opportunity to pick up the ugly broken pieces, bind up a heart that needs mending, and polish us so that our lives can truly shine for Him even, in our weaknesses?