Perfect Imperfection

Every now and then I am reminded of some great Spiritual Truth. It always catches me be surprise and it's as though I am rediscovering my toes. It's always been there and I've seemed to take it for granted until now. It's as though all of a sudden I've realized its importance in my life and its life altering implications. I was contemplating the lyrics of a Skillet song that says "You were fearfully and Wonderfully Made". They are quoting David here from Psalm 139 where David is just in awe of God. Its a beautiful Psalm. He just pours out emotion into it and tells of how God has crafted him within his mother's womb. How God saw his "unformed body" and how "all the days ordained for me were written within your book before one of them came to be". David has discovered here how unique he is and how the maker of all the Earth, the One whose "works are wonderful," has created him in His own image. Something that David is not doing here though, is thanking God for specific things about him. He is thanking God for making him exactly as he is including every good characteristic and every imperfection.

Now David certainly had a lot of things going for him, but he certainly wasn't perfect. More notable of his failures include adultery and murder which of course both took place late in life. So why did David sink to that level? Why would he, after being so close with God, decide to commit adultery and then cover it up with murder? If you look through 2 Samuel, you see that David starts out as a war hero, who has slain many Philistines and has been made King over Israel. As the book continues though, you see that David starts to remain at the palace more and more while he sends his troops to fight instead. This man who has fought many battles, probably has the battle scars to prove it, was now sitting in his palace bored. As other soldiers would come back to bring him the news, he probably ached to go to battle, to be back on the front lines and probably started to doubt himself. Suddenly those slight imperfections that he saw in himself began to waiver his self-confidence and that is when his focus came off God and onto himself and slipped into failure.

This Psalm, however, shows David understanding his imperfections and taking hold of them in joy. He is grateful for being exactly who he is, every little imperfection included. He says that he is fearfully and wonderfully made. Those character flaws and imperfections lead him to have a deeper understanding of God's love for Him which in turn gave him a greater Love for God.

I want to be clear before we continue that when I talk about imperfections I am not talking about sin. I am more talking about imperfections that we see in ourselves that if we simply allow God to work, He can use them for His Glory. Here is a story that I'm sure you've heard before, but helps me to illustrate my point.

One day long ago there was a servant who had the responsibility of getting water for his master. Every day the man would take the same two water jugs with him to fetch water from down the road. He would fill both jugs up as much as he could and then would begin to walk back down the road. One of these jugs had a crack in it and would leak water as he walked. The jug would try its best to hold as much water as it could, but could never hold all of it. Day after day the servant would take the jugs to get water and day after day the jug could not hold the water. It began to feel bad about itself and jealous of the one that could hold all of the water. One day it spoke to the servant and cried, "I am sorry, but no matter what I do I can't hold the water like the other jug."

The servant replied, "My friend, have you not noticed the side of the road that I carry you on. Do you not see all the beautiful flowers that are along the road? It is because of you that they are there. If it weren't for you I would not be able to decorate my master's table with beautiful flowers. You see I knew about the crack in you and kept you on that side so that you would water these plants."

From that day on the jug prided itself in seeing the beauty caused by the leaking water.

God knows our imperfections, because He is the one who created us. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and because of that our imperfections are made for God's glory. Take Peter for example. After they arrested Jesus, Peter denied Christ three times showing his almost cowardly behavior. Then in Acts we see Peter as this awesome pillar of the early church. God used Peter's imperfection to share this sharp contrast and to display the Holy Spirit's power. It was for God's glory. Without Peter's self-doubt and cowardice early on, we wouldn't be able to see God's transforming power in his life.

The idea that I was created by God is such an amazing concept and completely life changing. Everything about me was designed by Him. Every little thing that makes me, me was thought of before I was born. The other day was a Lunar Eclipse. This particular eclipse happened on the winter solstice, a phenomenon that hasn't happened in the last 300 years. I was born during this unique time so that I could appreciate the beauty of it just as every part of me was uniquely designed to serve God's purpose in my life. Things that I see as imperfections are not imperfections in His eyes. No, our imperfections are perfections of His Glory. Due to my love of photography I get to see this a lot. Often times I have to take a lot of pictures just to get the right shot in some cases, but every now and then, there are photos that I take that are accidents that prove to be even more beautiful than the original photo. I took a few photos of the Lunar Eclipse and some came out very well, but there was one that I absolutely loved and it wasn't at all perfect, but beautiful nonetheless.

It is through these imperfections that we will be able to give Glory to God and have the opportunity to see His work in our lives. It is beautiful to see that God had me designed and created in such a way as this, so that I might have perfect imperfections.