PICTURE PERFECT

Hi Beautiful People,

Today, atop my balcony, I happened to look upon a young woman sitting at a picnic table next to the water. She was apparently out for a stroll with her dog and stopped for a moment to take in the view. As I saw her, she was in the process of snapping her own picture in her camera. With camera turned around to face her, she captured her image. She quickly turned it back around and viewed what she had just taken. As she hit a few more buttons and rearranged her hair, it was evident she wasn’t satisfied with what she had seen.

Taking a look behind her to be sure her background was perfect, she pulled her hair around to her front and primped a few more things. She re-took the photo and apparently approved of it enough to stand up from her table and walk away from the scene, puppy trailing behind.

We have all taken our own picture and have seen it done by others many times. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this…God just allowed me to catch this brief moment to hear His heart today; to latch onto a simple truth in a whole new way.

It was as this young woman was adjusting her hair, making sure everything was as perfect as possible, that it hit me…we are not satisfied with how God sees us.

So many of us are living our lives as if we are trying to create the perfect picture of ourselves to capture the moment so we can take the image back to God. “See, Lord? It was a beautiful day and look how pretty I can be…are You happy with me? Do you like what You see? Do you now love me more than You did before? Am I worthy of You now?"

Most times, this analyzing spills right over to affect the people in our lives. These questions can begin to contaminate every area surrounding…

Life is not a still-frame photo and we are not images that can be airbrushed, quaffed, or adjusted with our own secret tweaks. We are all broken people and we are all dealing with our own imperfections. No one can see these human flaws more than the One who made every single part of us. We need the Lord’s truth to shine upon us to cleanse, perfect, and transform us. We cannot be changed apart from Him…

“For we [Christians]…worship God in spirit and by the Spirit of God and exult and glory and pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] in the flesh and on outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances—“ Philippians 3:3 (AMP)

Today, let us not strive to take our own “perfect” picture for God. Let us not torque our placement around to find the perfect background setup. Let us not delete the picture of who we are in this moment in order to try to hide what we see. This day is not the “end all, be all” of our story, but it is where we are today. Realizing this, we can then turn and run with all our might into the loving, faithful arms of Christ just as we are. We can bring our cameras loaded with “perfect” images trying to impress our Heavenly Daddy, but this is not what He wants. The truth of the matter is, Our Almighty Father sees us at all times, in all scenarios, whether hair is awry or every piece is exactly in place. He sees us in every way and HE STILL LOVES US.

This God we love and know as Abba, Father, is already proud of us, abounding with love, and delighted over each of His children. He doesn’t want us to airbrush our images or freeze-frame our “got it together” moments and bring them to Him for approval.

Erase the pictures you’ve snapped and saved with Perfection’s eye in mind and just bring yourself - camera still in hand to your loving Creator today. He wants to capture the truly perfect picture of Him just holding you…

In His PERFECT Love,
Katie Marie