You are Perfection

I had someone look me in the eye today and say these words to me: "You are perfection to me... In my eyes, you're perfection."  It totally caught me off guard.  Honestly, I had to have her (this woman who happens to be perfection in MY eyes) repeat herself because it simply did not compute.  I even laughed it off, but now, a few hours later as I was spending some long overdue time with the Lord, those words came back to me.  And they brought me to tears.  


I'm not perfect.  I wish I was.  Oh, how I wish I was!  It's a daily struggle for me, and I think it always will be.  I have tried so hard to be perfect that I have made myself sick, and still, I've failed.  I look in the mirror and I can see every flaw, every mistake, every shortcoming, every part of me that is so unworthy of love.  I see every struggle, and everything that I believe, yet can't seem to live.  I look at myself, and I see a mess.  I'm not perfect, and I never will be.  


As I sit here, looking for words, trying to process what God is speaking to my heart, I feel one thing: love.  I feel loved by the people I am blessed to have relationships with.  Most of all, I feel loved by God.  And that moves me to tears because I know how faithless I can be.  I know how when life gets crazy my relationship with God automatically takes last place.  I know how imperfect I am. But somehow, as I sit and soak in this love and confess my brokenness and thank God for His patience and grace and persistent love and willingness to draw me back again... somehow in this place, this place that I should spend so much more time in, things begin to make sense.  And I am moved.  


"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." ~1 John 4:18


Made. Perfect. In. Love.  I get so caught up in the fear part of this verse, that I forget the significance of those four words.  We have been made perfect in love.  It doesn't matter what I can see or what I know.  I've been made perfect in love.  And I can hear my Savior say, "You are perfection to me.  I don't care what you see.  I don't care what the world sees.  I don't care what you think you know.  In my eyes, you're perfection."  What a blessing it is to be loved.  By God.  By His people.  What a blessing it is to love!  I'm not sure which is better, but they go hand in hand.  It is love which makes us perfect.


His,
Stephanie