Perfect Looks Don't Adequately Represent Perfect Lives

I am not sure who specifically this is for… but I know who it’s intended to reach.

The hurting.
The hopeless.
The dejected.
The misguided.

The one who sees the images online and tries desperately to compete with what seems so unrealistic and foreign.

Because I couldn’t help but think of it this Easter Sunday.

It nudged on me from the moment I awoke until the few remaining minutes before I drifted to sleep.

And for so many the holidays can feel like a comparison game.

Because don’t we want to look our best for Christmas gatherings and Easter celebrations?  Don’t we race all over town in search for the perfect outfit to best represent the perfected image we wish to create?

We do.

We buy the shoes even though they’re killing our feet, because they look good. 
We scrub the parts of the house visible by guests “extra special”, while cramming everything unnecessary into that hallway closet no one uses, for fear of misrepresenting our over-protected reputation.
We smile for the picture even as we’re forcing back the tears from an insult dart hurled at us only moment earlier.

And I get it more than you know.

Because unfortunately our pictures, too, don’t always adequately represent the moments lived out on the other side of a camera.

And on a sunny Easter Sunday I, too, make mistakes.
I say words I wish I could take back.
I act in selfish ways I demand are not invalid.
I hurt someone I love unintentionally, but unquestionably.

Because I am not perfect.

And here’s a heads up… they aren’t either.

I know what it can feel like seeing all of those images and feeling inadequate.  Flawed.  Insufficient.  Defective.  Imperfect. 

I know that by comparison it would seem you’ve missed the mark.

Oh friend… I wish you wouldn’t feel that way.

We ALL fall short.
We ALL experience deep brokenness.
We ALL fight in the war of comparison.

Isaiah 43:4 reminds us of God’s great love… “… because you are precious to Me… You are honored, and I love you.”

Zephaniah 3:17 says that He takes great delight in you with gladness, and that He, “… rejoices over you with joyful song.”

Oh my prayer today is that you would see yourself through HIS eyes.  That you would begin measuring your worth against His standard of grace and not by the world’s idea of superiority and excellence.

He loves you just because.
All the shattered pieces too.
All of the imperfect parts too.
He loves all of you!
Just because.

Stop comparing yourselves to others who are just as concerned with image-bearing as you are.
Embrace your weaknesses.
Because it is then, and only then, when His greatness can shine the best!