Flawed Perfection

Last Friday, I took several photos of my wife, Carolyn, a couple in full views and one close up. She had been to Coldwater Creek a day earlier and picked up several tops that were on sale. We were about to run some errands when I noticed how nice she looked and asked her to pose so that I could capture the moment.

As I showed the photos to her, she indicated that she liked the close-up but not the others saying, “They show my flaws.”

My response was, “I don’t see any flaws. Some of those things you call flaws are what differentiates you from everyone else. It is your own special character.”

I described it like when a craftsman purchases material to build something like a boat or a great piece of furniture. Most prefer real wood versus some manufactured substitute because, “It has character.”

Today, we sat with several friends in a waiting room at Providence hospital while my sister-in-law had surgery to repair damage she sustained to her shoulder in a fall several weeks ago.

In idle conversation, one of our friends told me that he had always believed he had buck teeth. He said a dentist told him, “You don’t have buck teeth at all, just a serious overbite.” The dentist offered to correct it by breaking his jaw in a couple of places and making some adjustments. Jeff said he decided that he liked the way he looked.

I have never noticed anything that detracted from Jeff’s appearance but apparently he had.

I told him, “God made us all different because we are special. Think of all of the millions of people in the world and how many of them we cross paths with every day and how easy it is to recognize someone we know in a crowd of thousands.”

I believe that each of us is in fact—unique.

If you don’t think that is special, consider the following definition of unique from The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition.

1. Being the only one of its kind; sole. 2. Being without equal or equivalent; unparalleled.

Usage: Traditional grammarians insist that unique is an “absolute” term—either something is unique or it isn’t—so that it does not allow qualification of degree.

I would go one step further and use another absolute term to describe you, perfect.

Yeah, we may be able to do a few things to make us appear more attractive to each other or to the mirror, but nothing we do can make us more attractive to God our Father.

You are special because God made you so!

by Wayne Brady 8/14/2012

ps. Ladies let me clear up a few misconceptions. Most men prefer women with character; women who are honest and trustworthy; women who love us for who we are.

We care a lot less about physical appearance than women believe. We love you just like you are.