Slight Inperfection

I meander through the aisles of a favorite thrift shop, just looking at all the once loved or used items that crowd each shelf. I'm watching for a pretty tea cup, or Collector's Edition of a Holly Hobbie plate. I have a rule that the item has to be under $3.00, or I walk away. Not often easy.

I stop at the end of an aisle, when I spot two china cups. One is a sunshiny yellow, and the other, is a heart-fluttering robin egg blue. I turn them over and notice they are in my price-range, and I sigh, happily.

 

I'll never know if the original owner of these cups, chose the china patterns before her marriage, or maybe they were a wedding gift, from her Mother and Father. Perhaps she saved for years, and bought them to add to her collection of dishes to use when special people came to dine, or when it was a fancy occasion....I'll never know.

Did she wrap and pack them gently, so she could move across the nation from Kansas or Oklahoma, as my Great Grandmother's did?

What I do know is that they have been well used. I can see the wear and tear on these wares, and that is what I am most attracted to-their story. It took me a few years to realize that while I am captivated by the colors; the flowers; the dainty feel and look of a tea cup, I'm most drawn to the awareness that someone once used and enjoyed these gorgeous dishes, and there is a hidden story in each one.

I'm not often very attracted to a brand-new cup. Silly, I know.

I carefully placed these cups in my cart, next to the canning jars I found for a bargain, and make my way to the check-out.

The cashier lifts the saucer to the blue cup and says, "Ma'am, are you aware this one is chipped? Do you really want it?"

I reply with "Yes" to both questions, and he continues to scan items.

He then lifts the yellow cup and saucer and says, "This set is perfect, and beautiful!"

I feel my heart grab, and I hear the lesson....immediately!
 

We all come in different shapes and sizes. We all come in different colors. We all come from different places, such as these cups; one being from England, the other from Ohio.

We may be asked to come to the big table for fancy occasions, or maybe a small table for a intimate tea party.

Most of us have chips in our pottery, scrapes in our paint, or cracks in our handles.

Some of us are still very useful, and some having been useful for years, are too fragile now to be called upon to serve, and are asked to sit with their loveliness, in a china cupboard.

We are all beautiful.
We are all imperfect.

Perfection isn't an indicator of Beauty. Imperfection does not deem us useless.
It means we have lived and loved well.

We will find beauty, in each other's scrapes, cracks, and chips...our histories of imperfection, if we are willing to show grace, there.

I can look past the worn-out areas in you, and see you for who you really are.

Maybe you are sturdy, dependable, or maybe you shine in your elegance. You may be flowery and colorful, or plain and simple. You might even come with curves around your broken edges.

It's your wear and tear that indicates how loved you are, and how often you have served as you were created to do... that's true beauty.

Where some may look and only see cracks and slight imperfections, God looks through eyes of redemption and says, "I have a purpose for this beautiful one!"

 

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

Ecclesiastes 3:11