Absolutely Perfect

Beauty. That elusive quality that makes one desirable. Lovable. Confident. Sought after. Valuable. Did you know that Beauty is one of the four innate longings of the human soul? But if we only knew it, as God's creation and the intended Bride of Christ we already are.

We live in a culture that demands perfection. Somebody somewhere is always telling us how to do it better. Judging and critiquing us to be better wives, mothers, mentors, friends. To accomplish more, be more successful. Live in our dream home. Drive a jazzy car. Look like Fifth Avenue models. Eat and cook "clean", manage time like we had live-in help, and teach others how we did it all without breaking a sweat. Pressure to perform. Pressure to be perfect.

A glut of blogs out there are written by women searching for a scratch of cyber real estate to stake a claim and scream at the world in all caps that they were there. That they existed. That they mattered. Many have a large group of followers, who want to emulate them and prove to somebody, somewhere that they, too, are living the life. Worthy to lead others. Worth following.

As Christian women, another caveat is added to that search for significance. We are made in the image of God, expected to look like, act like, be like Jesus and represent his flawless Bride in every circumstance. Now that's pressure!

Yes, as Christian women we want to be perfect. Beautiful. But guess what? We. Already. Are. Somebody needed to say that. Because it's true. We are actually walking, talking, exact replicas of a perfect Jesus in the earth. You don't look in the mirror to get that revelation. It's something you have to receive, believe, and get your mind renewed to, and that's the work. But even before you believe it it's true. You and I were born into perfection. We were "in Christ" as He was reconciling Himself to the world. And His righteousness is our new, bone-of-His-bone and flesh-of-His-flesh DNA. In Him we ARE absolutely perfect -- blood, bone, breath, and brain. David lamented in Psalm 17 that he would be “satisfied” when he awoke in his likeness. He was looking down through time and eternity to the It Is Finished Jesus on the cross. That same Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Faith to believe that in Him -- in Perfection Himself -- we live and move and have our being.

You are absolutely perfect. Perfectly you.

Friend, may I tell you that awakening has already happened? The ultimate “Slave Trade” on the cross paid the ransom so we could. When the earth shook and the veil was rent on Golgotha a power surge occurred that catapulted Jesus from the bowels of the earth and Satan's caldron to a resurrected life that completely obliterated Adam's curse, past, present and future forever. Resurrection life. We received it when we said yes. The awakening to righteousness. Awakening to absolutely perfect you.

Now. Nobody's saying you "awakened" looking perfect. Acting perfect. Talking perfect. Or walking in the fullness of the covenant of blessing perfect. That's the part we're all working out, as in "... work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling..." (Phil. 2:12). That's why we're still here after we're born again -- to work out that salvation. To get a clue about who we are IN Christ. To walk the earth as living, breathing, speaking billboards in a state of transmutation daily from glory to glory. For the sake of everyone within our sphere of influence. You being perfect YOU, like a brilliant light drawing moths -- and lost souls -- to the flame. How? By simply being YOU. Because there is only one you. Only YOU are the perfect you.

Just as each individual cell in your physical body is unique to you, so are you in the Kingdom of God. No one else can fulfill your assignment. No one can walk in your shoes. No one can bump you out of line and successfully take your place. No one.

Because no one else is you. Beautiful, brilliant, one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted absolutely-perfect you.

So relax. And just be you. Awaken to the fact that YOU are absolutely perfect. And walk it out in a hurting, bleeding, bruised, confused and needy world that desperately needs your part.

Grace and peace.