to the one who failed.
The kids wanted to work on a drawing video yesterday, and I said they could… as long as they did it together. My bigger kids have seemingly opposite personalities at times, and nothing puts it on display quite like art class. Ollie is a “roll with it” kind of guy. If something goes awry in his creation, he just kinda shrugs and keeps it moving. Tacie, on the other hand, cannot bear the idea of imperfection, and we will hear lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth before finding her in the middle of a whole ream of crumpled-up printer paper. She doesn’t always give herself time to learn slowly, or time to fumble and experiment, before she demands mastery of herself. Unfortunately, in art as with much else in life, that’s just not how it works. This day was no different, so about half a ream of paper in and an inch away from tears, I called her in to sit with me on the couch. She was as tense as a coiled spring, and I pulled her in for a good long hug. She reluctantly let me hold her, and I could feel her tenseness slowly melt away. I simply asked her prompting questions to help her check in with herself: How was she was feeling? Tell me what’s going on? As she opened up, we talked through giving yourself permission to make mistakes. We talked through how we often will have a vision for how something should go, but being flexible and making room for playfulness and the unexpected is also just as important.
It hit me that this is the Lord’s heart for us. Our God IS perfection, and requires holiness, but he gave us Jesus because he knew we were never going to make it out of our pile of crumpled attempts. We are hardwired to long for perfection, but we will never find it in ourselves or what we create. Even this core desire within us is meant to point us to Him.
WE. WILL. FAIL. HARD… most assuredly. And we’ll probably do it quite often. But He will not fail us, our picture of perfection, our most faithful friend. Jesus ever-so-kindly draws us in, over and over again, saying, “Let’s try again.” He declares over those he loves that there is therefor now no condemnation for those in Christ. (Romans 8:1)
Sit on the couch and let him speak it over you. Feel the tightness in your very being melt away as you receive the freedom that comes from being loved by Christ. After all, it’s his kindness that leads us to repentance. It’s his mercy that shields us from perfection’s crushing demands. And it’s his steadfast love that dusts us off as we get back up again. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
