Driving to school today, I passed a house I look at every morning. It is a renovated older home with a big front porch and gables. It is painted a soft gray with white trim that has all the curly-ques and swirley designs. The dormer windows are perfect and the twinkle of lights from inside always welcomes my drive by the house. The front yard is perfectly landscaped and the back yard has a white picket fence surrounding the courtyard and pool. It is such a warm looking and inviting home.
The thing that caught my attention today was the fence. Fences usually are put up to keep others out or to keep something in. Sometimes they are for privacy. This fence seems to be more for decoration. It is probably about four feet high but does not seem to be for privacy since you can see clearly through the wide pickets to the pristine pool and yard behind it. It also seems to not hold anything in, again since the pickets are a bit wide. It more likely is for a boundary and for appearance. It really does make the “whole package” look for the house.
But today, I noticed more than the white fence. I noticed the green mossy growth that has begun to grow on it. This perfect picture that I have admired day after day seems to not be so perfect after all. Upon closer inspection now of the moss growing, I saw a crack in the fence. It also seems that one of the dormers needs some touch up paint. And, the small stone retaining wall has a couple of stones out of place.
Okay, so what about this house and fence made an impression on me today? The idea of perfection! Looking perfect from top to bottom and portraying an image of having it “all together” seem to be one of my pitfalls. Understand that I am not saying I “look” perfect or “have it together”. By all means, I KNOW I don’t. However, that seems to be the image as Christians that we try to portray. We’ve got God, so we have it all right! We got our NEW coat of paint, our white trim, and are landscaped to the 9’s so we can present ourselves as the perfect package.
Makes me wonder what moss is growing on us? What is broken? What is hidden in the eves and falling out of spot? And most importantly, what is going on inside this perfectly painted and manicured “home”? Appearances are deceiving. We can look all polished and perfect, but if we are not making an effort to continue the renewal of our minds and body, we will certainly give way to the moss in our lives.
The thing that caught my attention today was the fence. Fences usually are put up to keep others out or to keep something in. Sometimes they are for privacy. This fence seems to be more for decoration. It is probably about four feet high but does not seem to be for privacy since you can see clearly through the wide pickets to the pristine pool and yard behind it. It also seems to not hold anything in, again since the pickets are a bit wide. It more likely is for a boundary and for appearance. It really does make the “whole package” look for the house.
But today, I noticed more than the white fence. I noticed the green mossy growth that has begun to grow on it. This perfect picture that I have admired day after day seems to not be so perfect after all. Upon closer inspection now of the moss growing, I saw a crack in the fence. It also seems that one of the dormers needs some touch up paint. And, the small stone retaining wall has a couple of stones out of place.
Okay, so what about this house and fence made an impression on me today? The idea of perfection! Looking perfect from top to bottom and portraying an image of having it “all together” seem to be one of my pitfalls. Understand that I am not saying I “look” perfect or “have it together”. By all means, I KNOW I don’t. However, that seems to be the image as Christians that we try to portray. We’ve got God, so we have it all right! We got our NEW coat of paint, our white trim, and are landscaped to the 9’s so we can present ourselves as the perfect package.
Makes me wonder what moss is growing on us? What is broken? What is hidden in the eves and falling out of spot? And most importantly, what is going on inside this perfectly painted and manicured “home”? Appearances are deceiving. We can look all polished and perfect, but if we are not making an effort to continue the renewal of our minds and body, we will certainly give way to the moss in our lives.
5 comments:
This was an amazing blog denise!!! You are so right. We get one area of our life fixed and we move on....we forget to daily renew the parts that are fixed...it's a constant renewal. I daily pray for strength and wisdom. And yes, I can still goof up, but it's so much better knowing God is there laughing with me too at some of my clumsiness, but He still loves me! Even if I fall on ice face first and won't leave the house, HE still thinks I am beautiful!!!
Really amazing blog hon!!
You know what I love about a picket fence like that? It is that you can see through the pickets, and see all the imperfections...if you look close enough. None of us have it all together...and none of us are able to truly hide those cracks that we think we have hidden. I hope I can always be someone who takes a peek through the cracks. Not to find other's weaknesses or imperfections...but to help them to heal what they can. And I'm thankful to friends like you who can see through my own, even when I think I have them very well covered.
Wow what a great analagy and thoughts and how true this is about us! One of the things I read this morning in a "Woman After God's Own Heart" was that David continually asked God to search his heart and bring his faults I guess before God so that God would really his prayers. She was saying to the reader that we need to do the same. Ask God to show us those areas that are a mess and then help us to fix them. I hate doing this because it hurts to see the truth and it hurts worse to have it fixed! I just love this Denise and hope you will put this out for everyone to read:) Thanks for sharing your incite.
Kerrie
Ladies,
Thanks for your comments and words of wisdom.... My blog is now public and that really is a stretch for me. Thanks for the push! Mindy, good to hear from you. I really miss your insights and honesty.
Denise
Yeah Denise!! You go girl!
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