Embracing Imperfection

Guest Blogger: Angie

It was eye candy.

Fabric stacked and sorted according to color.

Thread of every hue sprinkled the closet’s top shelf.

My Gramma’s sewing closet looked like an advertisement for a well-stocked shop.

I used to peek inside and almost drool. Not necessarily because I was great at sewing, but because I found her organization fabulous. As Mary Poppins would say, it was “practically perfect in every way”.

When Gramma passed away I moved tubs of supplies from her closet to my basement. I wanted to turn her perfect closet into a quilt using only her fabric. After lots of research and decision making, I finally chose a pattern and began laying out the pieces. I could hardly wait to cuddle up with this perfect project. It would be colorful and cozy. I knew I’d love it.

Hmm… the perfect project quickly reminded me that nothing on earth is ‘technically’ perfect. As my sewing machine chug-chug-chugged along, I noticed seams weren’t exactly straight. “Maybe I could hide that with the quilting”, I thought.

Gramma said to always iron a project as you go. Ugh. I hate ironing! But this was going to be the perfect quilt, so I ironed. Then I saw a great idea: use tape to mark lines on your finished project. Sew alongside the tape, peel it off and voila’-perfectly straight quilting lines!

Um no. I accidentally sewed over portions of the tape. Instead of perfect lines, I had teeny, very sticky pieces of tape underneath the stitches! So much for hiding the goofs. Frustration was setting in. This wasn’t as perfect as I wanted. I took a long break from it because looking at all the imperfections was honestly getting annoying.

Jump forward a few months. The owner of a shop I occasionally frequent was conducting a little social exercise. She asked people to share and appreciate things that they’ve done right. Many people could quickly think of how they screwed up, but it took more thought and effort to come up with successes. Surprised? After giving it some thought, I was glad to share with her a heartfelt list. It made me think. Even though we are full of goofs, it’s ok. We are still valuable and loved. Why? I’ll show ya…

“…neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:39

Lots of words. Lots of love. Nothing can separate us from it. Nothing. God loves you and me and He loves us where we’re at. Right now. Not after we land the perfect job, not after losing a few pounds, not when we’re in a better mood. Right now.

God scoops us up with all our good stuff and grumpy stuff and embraces us. He knows we aren’t perfect, and that’s ok. If it’s good enough for God, it certainly should be enough for me.

There are successes amidst our mistakes. We learn. We try again.

I went back to Gramma’s quilt. After scrunching my nose up at the wiggly lines and angles that would make a geometry major squirm, I looked at it closer. A lot of hard work went into it. It was colorful. It was unique. It was meaningful. I loved it.

Embracing imperfection, I took some pictures to remember the process. Not just the steps it took to put together the piece, but to remind myself that we aren’t perfect.

And God loves us anyway.