Church News Volume 4, Issue 10

Dear friends,

I saw an expensive rug which had been brought back from a Muslim country following a holiday, and was asked to find the flaw in the pattern. A mistake in an expensive rug?

It was explained to me that in the Islamic faith any designs or patterns on pictures, walls, book illustrations or even rugs and carpets, could not be perfect. God, Allah, alone is perfect, and we should not try to be like God with anything we make but reflect our sinful and imperfect state.

It got me thinking about how God is of course perfect in every way. He is the creator of all, and all that He has made is good and flawless. The bad things of the world, the imperfections, are all man-made. War, violence, hunger, disease, hate. People suffer because of the greed and thoughtlessness of others, the world is despoiled because of bad human stewardship, not because the creation is imperfect.

It is the people who God created who are imperfect, and in Christian terms we would say this is because of the free-will God had given us to choose between doing what is right or what is wrong, good and evil, God's will or our own.

Yet, despite our imperfections, God, we believe, still loves us and cares for His creation.

Non of us is perfect, (although we sometimes like to think we are!), we all make mistakes in our lives, the lives of others and with the world in which we live. But imperfect though we are, God still loves us.

If that is how our Heavenly Father loves us then Jesus tells us that this is how we ought to love and forgive those who are around us. Forgive imperfections in others as your imperfections have been forgiven in you. How easy it is to see the imperfections in others and to allow their flaws to dominate how we see them and treat them, without considering the flaws we display in our life.

An expensive carpet is not discarded because it has a flaw in the pattern, but the flaw is part of the character and beauty of the rug. The imperfection is accepted and after a while not noticed by the owner and those who live with it.

We are not discarded because we have obvious flaws in our lives, because we make mistakes, because we often fail ourselves, others and God. No, far from it, we are accepted and loved by God.

So, if we are accepted, imperfections and all, we should make the effort to accept others.

Don't judge by appearances, try to see the beauty in a person's life rather than the flaws and imperfections.

Summer holidays are especially a stressful time when families and friends are given more time together. Forgive and accept the imperfections in others, try to be better at enhancing your own good side and overcoming your own flaws.

Love and forgive others their faults as you are forgiven yours by God. It will make your enjoyment of life and those around you much more fulfilling and rewarding.

Have a good summer!

Revd Ian M. Finn

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