Saturday, June 02, 2007

Disecting perfection

A response to a comment on my recent perfection post:

First off, the post below was something I wrote on the front of my wife's birthday card just a few days ago. It came out of a theme I wanted to get across to her, it being her 27th birthday, and I wanted to impress upon her that to me she was perfect (7 often being a symbol of perfection).

Now obviously I wasn't trying to dupe her into believing she's perfect physically or spiritually or any such unattainable state that would be untrue of any human being. But what I was intending to say, and what came out of that expression, was a truth of perfection in my mind ... or perhaps a different definition of perfection.

God calls us to be perfect. But what does that mean? When we say 'nobody's perfect', what are we saying? Well, I suppose we're saying, no one is God. No one person ever makes a perfectly right choice every time. And no one has flawless character, like God. But I don't think perfect, from God's perspective has anything to do with the outward appearance, though that is a word we've used to describe many physical attributes (workmanship done with hands, the absence of mistakes or flaws, what most people subjectively believe to be beautiful). What I was attempting to say to my wife Kari, was that God's choice for her as my wife was 'perfect'. And I'm not some relationship guru who has it all figured out ... but somehow in the circumstance of our marriage, God's perfectness was a part of what happened. Perhaps because HE was, we see, the prime reason we have each other. There is perfection within our own circumstances.

And then in the indwelling of God within us, one of the greatest mysteries ever, there is perfection then in all of us, living and striving with us to produce in us, through life, godly perfection. Not pharisitical aloofness. Not hierarchical religious pompousness. Not any order created by man. Purely and simply, God's character lived out by God Himself through us. A mystery I love because of its overreaching implications on my person and all those around me. I am forever changed and changing to become the person God intended me to be.

Then of course, we have Jesus Christ. Who is described as even kind of ugly physically, and yet we consider to have lived a perfect life. So then, what does that mean ... ?

No comments:

Post a Comment