Early in this blog I wrote a post about Life's Imperfections. If you haven't read back that far, I invite you to read it. I am not perfect, nor do I hope to be. I don't claim that my house is perfect, nor my children. I'm not perfect at work, nor at home. I'm not perfectly manicured. I don't have perfect hair, skin and nails.
However, all around me I am bombarded with the idea of perfection; The perfect sofa, the perfect seasoning, the perfect cushion, the perfect pair of shoes, the perfect ___________________, you fill in the blank.
Saturday, we took our family on an outing to the pumpkin patch. Oh, we had a wonderful time! The pumpkins were ripe for the pickin... and they were glorious colors of white, green, blue (yes, blue) and orange. There were bumpy pumpkins, smooth pumpkins, round, tall, squashed pumpkins. There were pie pumpkins and carving pumpkins. There were gourds and melons.
As we loaded the hay wagon to go back to the barn, I heard one precious little girl out in the field, she was probably five years old at most, exclaim in her loudest, most excited 5 year old voice, "Daddy! Daddy! I've found it! I found the perfect pumpkin!," as she tried to pick up a pumpkin almost as big as she was.
My heart said, "That's it! I understand, now." It was one of those glorious, spontaneous moments of truth that comes only by Grace.
We continually look for perfection in the world around us. And you know what? We're always disappointed. We search high and low, around and back again to find something that our heart is longing for, and cannot grasp. Our souls were created to search after and pursue our creator. He is the perfect One, the only perfect one. Every time we look for perfection in anything else, it is our created heart searching for, longing for, the perfection that can only be found in Him alone.
Matthew 5:48 says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." I know that I will never attain perfection in this life, on this earth. But I know that my Heavenly Father is perfect, and through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, I am made perfect in Him, the one, who perfected me. Even in my failures, even in my disappointments, even in my grief and suffering, even in my heartache...I have a perfect Father, and my heart should cry out, "Daddy! Daddy! I've found it! I've found the perfect One...and it's YOU!"
I can strive for perfection, and I believe my Heavenly Father delights in that. But I know, that in my humanness I will fail. I will miss the mark. But I will continue to delight in the perfection of my Lord and My God knowing that one day I will be with Him in eternity, and together we will rejoice in the presence of the Holy One.
Today, my heart delights in saying, "Daddy! Daddy! I've found the perfect one, and it is you!"
And I proclaim it today...
Only By His Grace,
Billie
