How Perfect is Perfect?

One morning, about 50 years ago, my wife Audrey, and I were just about to get out of bed when we heard the rattle of cups and saucers and a lot of whispering coming from the kitchen. Sensing that our two daughters, Rueleen and Jenelle, were planning

something secretly, to surprise us, we decided to wait and see   what they intended to do. (At that time they were a bit younger than they are in the photos here). Sure enough we had guessed right because a few minutes later they came into our room carefully carrying a tray with two cups of tea, and a SAO biscuit with butter and Vegemite in the saucer beside each cup.  Audrey and I sat up in bed with pillows behind our shoulders and received the tray onto our laps with great delight, whilst they stood at the end of the bed all excited to see how we enjoyed our tea and biscuits.

 

Needless to say we were excited by the fact that they cared enough to do this out of love for us. After we had sipped our tea and tasted our biscuits they asked “How is it?” Of course, with smiles on our faces, we replied that “it was perfect.”

Now what did we mean by “perfect”? Was the tea made exactly the way we liked it? No it wasn’t; it contained too much milk and sugar. How about the biscuit, was it perfect? No not really, it would have been better on a separate plate as some tea had made one edge of each biscuit soggy. But all that paled into insignificance as we realised the love that prompted their effort and the delight they had in doing something for us, and we certainly never criticised their effort because it was absolutely perfect in our eyes.

When these girls grew up they had families of their own and when we went to visit them they would serve us morning or afternoon tea and now the tea was exactly right, and so were the biscuits or whatever they served with the tea, and it was “perfect” because they had, over the years, observed how much milk and sugar we liked, and experience taught them to be careful to not let the biscuits, (or whatever they served) get wet, and that was lovely. However, if they hadn’t improved we would have been disheartened. Nevertheless, there is nothing they could do now that would be more perfect in our sight than what they did that first time, and it lives forever in my memory and I’m sure in Audrey’s memory too, even though she is now in Heaven.

The above is a parable of the Christian life. When we first become Christians by accepting God’s forgiveness of our sin, (through what Jesus accomplished for us in giving His life as a “Ransome” for ours), we are then only “Babes in Christ” for starters, and endeavour to live a life pleasing to Him, but we will frequently make mistakes without meaning to. This is normal, and just as Audrey and I overlooked the mistakes our daughters made that morning and considered that what they had done was “perfect”, so it is that the Angels in Heaven and God Himself are delighted with our first efforts and see them as “perfect”. 

Of course, here again, if we are sincere we will study the Bible, (particularly the New Testament) and endeavour to correct any imperfections in our behaviour in order to show our love to God for all He has done for us, and also practice trying to “love our neighbour as we love ourselves,” as Jesus told us to.

If we make mistakes they are overlooked if we immediately ask for that forgiveness, because mistakes come from the entrenched bad habits we have acquired over the years and it can sometimes take a while to eliminate them from our behaviour patterns. As Paul (one of the greatest Christians ever,) said “not that I have already attained perfection, but I press on”.

but to deliberately sin and defy God’s directions is something different and would show that we didn’t get the message properly, so is not acceptable behaviour.

Of course, Christians don’t gain forgiveness and Salvation through good behaviour. Jesus earned that privilege for us by His sacrificial death and resurrection, but we are required (indeed it is our privilege), to endeavour to live lives that glorify God who has made it possible for us to inherit eternal life with Him, irrespective of how badly we may have sinned in the past.

Best wishes with that, Tom.