Why We Should Embrace Our Flaws

It’s only January 14th in my chronological Bible reading,

and Jacob is already on the scene…………….

tricking Laban in order to leave the family farm with a bigger flock.

I’m amazed at how much deception has already been part of mankind’s history.

From Eve to Noah’s daughters to Abraham to Jacob…………….

our past is laced in lies.

It’s easy to read these stories and feel certain I would never do such things.

Bite the fruit

Get my father drunk

Pretend my husband is my brother

Make a deal and then cause the deal to go my way

These choices seem so avoidable.

But then I look in the mirror…………….

and oh how everything changes when you take a good long look at that person staring back at you.

I’m no stronger than the weakest Bible character.

Doubt and fear got the best of every one of them along the way;

and if I’m honest, they often get the best of me.

Maybe that’s what keeps drawing me back to their stories.

They struggle.

They fail.

And then God shows up.

Every single time.

He’s right there……………………

sweeping up the mess,

mopping the floor.

He has a way of taking all the wrong choices and bringing about something very right.

And I don’t know about you,

but I need Someone just like this walking before me, beside me, and behind me.

I need a Father who looks into my eyes and sees the beauty I often miss as my gaze tends to wander to the imperfections – the flaws.

Last night, a frozen puddle right beside the front tire of my car caught my eye.

I’m really not sure how I saw it in the dark.

The street lights must have hit it just right.

But there it was.

Love.

In the brokenness of the frozen water.

And it was beautiful.

The couple in the car next to me must have thought I was a little strange………….

Getting back out of my car to snap a photo.

But when love catches your eye,

there’s always a reason and it’s worth the risk of looking silly.

I really didn’t understand how much this particular heart would speak to me until I got home.

I had noticed the cracks in the heart when I took the picture,

but I hadn’t really soaked in the beauty in its brokenness until I sat down at home and gave it a good look.

The Old Testament is filled with characters just like this puddle.

Broken

Messed up

Flawed

Imperfect

I’m so thankful for a Father who looked beyond all the cracks and saw their beauty.

I’m so thankful for the Author of our own stories who faithfully writes us out of our messes and into His master plan.

There’s no mistake, no weakness, no decision too impossible for Him to transform into a message.

Our messes really do become His message.

Our cracks open our hearts to Him……………….

What if the very things we regret are the only way He is able to truly enter in?

Only broken things need a Healer,

so embrace all the things today that make you feel inadequate and flawed.

Embrace them.

Accept them.

Give thanks for them.

And then let them go………………..

into His hands.

If He could set the story of mankind into motion with the likes of the people found in Genesis,

He can surely keep the story moving right along with people like you and me.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,

who have been called according to his purpose.”  

Romans 8:28