Finding Mr. Perfect

Finding Mr. Perfect

Who says there’s no Mr. Perfect? I beg to differ; I’m looking at him now. My own Mr. Perfect is tacked to the bulletin board above my desk. He is about three inches tall, made of red rubber, and encased in plastic. He’s got the biceps and washboard abs of a G.I. Joe doll, and his well-proportioned arms are stretched wide. He’s labeled “Mr. Perfect—Grows three to four times his size in water!” I’ve never immersed him. But if he grew twenty times, he’d still be too short for me, even without heels.

Someone gave me this novelty Mr. Perfect as a joke, but every time I see him, I’m reminded of the absurdity of expecting perfection in any sort of package. (Or of being perfect myself.) Why? Because perfection is an illusion. And because I could wait a lifetime for perfect and not find it or become it. I’m pretty sure that perfect exists only in fairy tales, or for nanoseconds at a time. Give any of us much longer than a wink, and we’ll blow our shiny cover for good. In fact, let me come clean right here and now: I am flawed. I’ve never been perfect. (Airbrushed once; perfect not one single time.)

Perfect may be nice to look at, but it’s only a wavy mirage. As soon as you get close enough to touch it, perfect goes fuzzy at the edges and then disappears entirely. But flawed, well, that’s another story. Flawed invites honesty and enjoys community. Best of all, flawed is the very condition of mine that God the Father embraced when I pled for his mercy and first tasted grace.

Mr. Perfect has no hope of growing, ever. He’ll be three inches tall and encased in plastic this time next year. But God willing, I’ll be different. Not perfect. Just a little more like Jesus than the day before. So buh-bye, Mr. Perfect! Mr. Real’s surely more my type—and it’s Ms. Real I’m hoping to more fully become. Because God loves me just that way.

As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:12-13, NIV