What makes something beautiful? I think in society we have come to view perfection as the ultimate perfection. But I think we’ve got it all wrong.
Recently in my travels up north, my breath was repeatedly taken away by the beauty of the changing color on the leaves on trees. I cannot tell you how many times I pulled my car over to the side of the road and stopped my car just to take another picture of a tree or a group of trees in every phase of colorful transition. The beauty enveloped me in warmth as the cool air circled around me. It dawned on me, however, that not one of these trees was perfect. Each one had limbs and branches and leaves sticking out from the rest, avoiding uniformity. Some projected the same color on every leaf, some had not even begun to change their colors, and some had multiple colors of leaves at one time. But not a single one was perfectly uniform. And as I thought about it, I wondered how I would know if a tree was “perfect” anyway? Only God could know that.
God doesn’t expect perfection. What He desires is willing and surrendered heart. Wherever we are in our state of change and transformation, we can be an encouragement to those less traveled in their journey, not by being perfect but by being real, honest, and vulnerable, and we can look to those further along in their walk for example and mentoring.
Is it time for you to give up your notion that you must be perfect? What do you need to surrender to Him today?
