My Persian friend’s parents gave me some pistachios from Iran. Various climate and biological factors make Iran one of the best places in the world to grow pistachios; it goes without saying that they are much tastier and of much better quality than pistachios that are produced in the U.S. However, there were a couple of shells that weren’t cracked all the way and I couldn’t get the nuts out. When I pointed that out to him, he said to me, “That’s how you know you have the real thing- the shells are imperfect. The ones that you get around here are shelled and cracked perfectly.”
I’ve struggled with body dysmorphia most of my life, so this was an epiphany that resonated with me in a spiritual way. I’ve beaten myself up over the imperfections (I’ll write about that in a later blog) that I believed defined me as a person and made me ugly. I’ve compared myself to perfectly airbrushed IG models that look like mannequins, not realizing that their flawless features aren’t actually theirs – they were purchased and surgically customed. I was unknowingly comparing myself to something that wasn’t even real and created by God Himself. I, being someone created by God, was comparing myself to something that was created by man.
In Song of Solomon 4:7, the bridegroom tells his lover, “You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.” Jesus is our Bridegroom; we are His bride. The imperfections that we see in ourselves, the things that we believe make us flawed and hinder our inherent value, God does not see. He sees as flawless. He sees us believers as spotless, blameless, and white as snow. He sees us as His beautiful masterpiece that He perfects day by day, from the inside out. And the earthly husband (or wife) whom God selected for us will see what He sees in us as well. We aren’t meant to be like perfectly shelled pistachios, we are better. We are the real thing. We are quality. We are of inherent value because of who our Creator is. We weren’t manufactured by mass producers; we were knitted in our mothers’ wombs by the hands of our perfect and almighty Creator. Our imperfections were crafted intentionally and with purpose by Him. So, our imperfections don’t make us ugly, less-than, or inferior; they make us real. Which is beautiful.
One Response
Amen.