Perfectly Imperfect

My dad gave my son a disposable camera for Christmas. Remember those? Back when people used film in photography and went to CVS to get it developed? A form was completed. The roll was slid into a bag, dropped into the slot box, and sent off filmfor development which took weeks. Remember the excitement of opening the cardstock envelope and flipping through the pictures to see how they turned out.Back then, we couldn’t delete the bad pictures. We kept our fingers crossed and hoped the flash worked or that our thumbs didn’t cover the lens. Some came out great. Others we tore up. Some caused us to laugh out loud.Now, with digital cameras, if we don’t like how the picture turned out, we delete it and take another. No reason to bother with imperfection. No one needs to see that we blinked, had a double chin, or were still talking with our mouth all contorted. Now, we only keep the ones that come out perfect.An old Indian parable tells a story about two pots. A man carried them on the ends of a stick that he slung over his shoulders. He’d walk down to the river, fill them with water, and toted them back to the house. He did this daily for two years. One of the pots, however, had a crack in it and leaked most of its water before it reached the house. The cracked pot was ashamed of its mostly empty load and wept bitterly. The water bearer heard the cracked pot crying and took pity on it. He said, “Look down the path. See all the flowers that bloom along your side. I planted seeds there, and every day your leak has watered them. Now, I have flowers to decorate the master’s table.”God doesn’t allow things to go to waste. He will use our imperfections for His glory. So don’t be afraid to show your flaws. Everybody has them. They make us unique. They build our character and develop us into who we are. They keep us reliant on a perfect God. Trust Him to make you perfect in your imperfection.FYI: I can’t spell or figure out commas to save my soul (no matter how many time I reference Strunk and White’s, The Elements of Style grammar book). I allowed those flaws to keep me from writing for years, but God had instilled a desire to write deep within me that wouldn’t go away. So, now I Praise God for spell check and grammar software!

By the way, my son thought that disposable camera was the coolest thing ever. He loved turning on the flash, snapping a picture, and then cranking the wheel to forward the film. He brought it with him everywhere. Here are some of his photos:

Son making hot coco

Son and Grandad getting into car

Lorri, Son and mother

Lorri and youngest son

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