Redeeming Not-Perfect

There is so  much more to say on the subject every time I blog.

It doesn't matter what the subject is,

I always feel like I want to put more meat on each idea and serve it up better.

In my last post I used the phrase "Maybe I don't want [a world that is] perfect."

Doesn't that create a whole bunch of weird in your head? 

It does mine.

Looking at my world through God's eyes, maybe I do want perfect.

I want Perfect, but have lived with so much 

Not Perfect 

that I forget Perfect is possible.
I want "my perfect" on my terms.

I know He created Eden and He will recreate Perfection again in the future.

We all ache for "Eden" in some way, I believe 

-even before we know what the ache is.

I know it's my sin that separates me from His Perfection 

and that every single particle on earth has been affected 

by our rejection of God's design.

We're messed up, and we can't fix it.

The unfathomable beauty of the situation 

is that He can fix it.

He takes Not Perfect, and makes it into something else.

We describe His fixing work in a word I love:

Redemption

God, with His Amazing Grace, (ah, another word that wraps me with His love!)

takes what is broken and makes it not only whole, but perfect.

He buys back the things we've done and had done to us, 

creating the new thing that is Redeemed.

In my own life, the grief of losing a daughter 

has opened my heart to birth parents in a way 

I don't think I would have without the loss: redemption.

 The difficult times when I couldn't deal with the unbelievable pressure 

of raising three children (way back then...!) gives me sympathy for 

the young momma and her rough day: redemption.

A mother who knows she can't raise another child in her already difficult life 

gave that child a family and "a goodly heritage:" redemption.

Any grief, any happiness, any pain, any hard thing

 can be given into His hands, and He does His miracle: redemption.

So, when I look at our world that is truly messed up 

and children who ache for 

What Should Be, not What Is, 

I have hope.

Sometimes, I ache and am a little confused how I can best impact 

One More.

I want to experience the thing God does when He fixes our messes.

I want to be a part of His plan to take the broken and offer them 

His Love and 

Grace and 

Life.

And The Million Dollar Question still stands,

"What else does He want me to do?"