Several years ago, my family and I started one of my favorite family traditions. On the morning of a birthday, we wake up to eat cake for breakfast to celebrate the life of our family member. We have a special heart shaped pan in which all the cakes are baked. Whoevers birthday it is, gets to pick the flavor of the cake and the icing and the others in the house have to make it. Keep in mind, these are not fancy cakes (they are usually pretty ugly), just your regular Betty Crocker box cakes. This year as Abby was shopping up and down the baking aisle, she came accross her perfect cake. It was a 'specialty' cake by some guy named Duff. I guess a 'gourmet' cake you can bake in your kitchen. For me, not very likely. My response, "If that's the one you want." In my head I was thinking, good luck with that. Tonight as I was attempting to put the cake together, I did as I assumed I would and made several critical errors. The directions said to put the white cake mix in one bowl with said ingredients. Then I was supposed to put the chocolate cake mix in a bowl with another list of said ingredients. Sure enough because I was tired and not paying attention, I dumped the chocolate cake mix right on top of my white cake mix. Don't get me wrong, I made a valient attempt to scoop the chocolate back out, but white just isn't white with some chocolate left over in it. So now my zebra cake was chocolate and light chocolate. Maybe it doesn't look so bad on the inside, the verdict will be out in the morning. Next, instead of spreading my icing on a warm cake - I do as I always do (because I'm tired and do not want to wait for the cake to completely cool) and I heat the icing up in the microwave. Just enough to soften it up, so I can half pour and half spread it around. Well, a minute was too much for this icing and before I knew it, I had created a pond of pink vanilla icing. Of course as my patience would have it, the 2 minutes I left it in the fridge to become solid again was not quite long enough. As I poured the icing on the cake, it left a thin layer on top and then gathered in the dark recesses along the edge of the pan. No matter how much I tried to tip the pan this way and that to better cover the top, it just wasn't going to happen. So now I have a thin layer of pink over a chocolate and light chocolate design. Yuck. Next, you add the sprinkles. According to my children you can never have too many sprinkles. I added the pink and purple dots and the pink and purple sparkly flakes. Then I think to myself, this is getting worse, not better. Finally, the words: "Happy Birthday Abby" in white sparkle icing. Once again, too long in the microwave proved to be a bad thing. The "H" in happy is now a white snowball big enough for a solid foundation to Frosty's body. What have I done? This cannot be undone. Oh well, I must carry on. I boldy finish the phrase "Happy Birthday Abby" trying to fill in some other letters to make it look like it was not a total mess up. All in all, as I finish the cake I think to myself, "This is one of the ugliest cakes I have ever seen". Immediately another thought came into my head. My daughter is going to wake up in the morning and see the pink icing and all of the sparkles and think it is one of the most beautiful cakes she has ever seen. I will be the bestest mom ever. I am really convinced that she will think it is the best cake in the world. Even if the inside looks more like a two toned horse than a zebra.
That's when I truly realized the truth about finding Perfection in Imperfection. I mean, isn't that true about Jesus and the way He sees us? I could give you a list of 20 things that I find wrong with myself. But not my God-He doesn't see me that way at all. He sees something beautiful and perfect that was created in HIS image. Wow! He can actually see His perfect creation despite of all the imperfection that surrounds it. You may be asking yourself what this has to do with serving the homeless. The answer is - tons!! You and I can pick ourselves apart and come up with all of these things that are wrong with us. Yet, we have jobs, and homes, can shower everyday, eat when we are hungry and on and on. Now imagine you are homeless. You don't have a job or a roof over your head. You haven't been able to shower for a week. You're wearing dirty clothes that aren't quite your size. You are so malnourished that your cheeks are sinking into your face. Your last meal came from the dumpster behind the donut shop. Now ask yourself, who could find perfection in that? The answer? Our Saviour, Jesus Christ-that's who! I believe we need to start looking for the perfection in people and stop looking at the imperfections. If that is what Christ does for us, why are we so unwilling to do it for others? Why do we find it so easy to find each others' faults and pick one another apart? It reminds me of the part of the Lord's prayer that tells us to forgive others to the extent that we want to be forgiven.
My challenge to you this week is this: find that person-you all know what I mean when I say, that person. It may be your boss, your spouse, a co-worker, or your challenging teenager. Instead of looking at that person this week and hunting for all of his or her imperfections, I challenge you to look hard for the perfection that lies deep within each of them. Try to see that person for the beautiful being that he or she is. That beautiful and perfect child of God. Imagine the impact we would have on this world if we simply looked for the perfections in others instead of the imperfections. I challenge you this week to go and seek perfection!!
God Bless!
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