God Knows All Our Flaws

         

           I remember as a young child, eight or nine, a woman in our church who had an angelic voice, was beautiful and soft spoken.  I admired her faith and looked up to her as the perfect role model.  On a chance occasion I went home with her after church one Sunday morning to return with her to the evening service.  The afternoon was grand until that unthinkable offense. She lit a cigarette.  I was crushed.  I cried and cried as my “perfect” Christian friend sinned.

            As an adult now, and I reflect on life, I see that no one human is perfect.  We all have flaws.  We try with great effort to do what is right and just and pleasing to God, but each of us fail in some way.

            I know as a parent reflecting on the raising of my children, I certainly made mistakes.  There were times when I didn’t listen, didn’t understand, said the wrong thing, had the wrong opinion and on and on!  As a wife, it’s no different.  I fail, if not my husband’s expectations, certainly my own! 

As a friend, I’m certain there are those who would say I failed as a friend.  It wasn’t a deliberate act of hurtfulness, but circumstances dictated something different than they expected and it’s my failure.

A friend of mine has a daughter who is certain all the ills of her life are her mother’s fault.  She takes no responsibility for her own decisions. It’s with great effort that this mother deals with her pain in a healthy and godly way so as not to sin. Bitterness could creep in and cause her to sin in a way she hadn’t even anticipated.  It happens.  Homes are broken because someone didn’t do the right thing--- or avoided doing something—or just plain did the wrong thing, even if it was for the right intentions.

Our human-ness makes us vulnerable to sin. We were born into it, yet God is consistent with His love.  He doesn’t hold back.  In fact, he gave us the perfect sacrifice; His Son!  That gift was given even knowing all our flaws!  Jesus took the entire sin of the world onto His shoulders.  

            With effort, many people never see our greatest failures.  Just as my innocence of human frailty was devastated by my friend’s actions, and even though God provided the perfect sacrifice, surely He must be even more devastated and grieved by our actions.  The “failure” by my friend was seen by me, by chance.  We can never hide our failures from God.  What a responsibility—and what’s more, we are each accountable!