Perfect

⁴⁸Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.  ~Matthew 5:48 

Psalm 8

¹O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

²Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;

⁴what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

⁵Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.

⁶You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,

⁷all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

⁸the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

I have always been befuddled by Psalm 8* which describes the high regard God apparently has for human beings. And then there is the whacko bit from Matthew telling us to be perfect. Perfect? Are you kidding; anyone with the slightest insight into human nature knows that’s impossible. Oh, we coo about babies being perfect, which is also a total load; and I’m not just talking about the contents of their diapers. Babies are totally completely utterly selfish. Babies are only concerned with their being dry, fed, warm, comfortable – selfish, selfish, selfish, or in theological garb – totally sinful. Perfection is out of the question, not even remotely possible. Some of as we get older delude ourselves into think we are getting nicer. We become concerned about our children and put their needs above our own; but their your children; it’s just another form of selfishness. Sin.

However, I have begun to notice more often that when I look at the members of my family and friends and even total strangers they make me smile and I think they’re perfect.  What has happened to my clear analytical mind? But it is how I see them; perfect. Go figure.

Perhaps what is going on with me and others afflicted with this delusional activity, is that we are infected from time to time with a God virus. For God does see us as perfect; at least that is how I understand the biblical record. Oh, I know all about the sinful condemnations of God upon people and how our actions really rankle his/her Deityness. But the point of the scriptural story is that God sacrificed his Son Jesus to eradicate sin. So, when God looks at us God sees us after the fact of that redemption ~ sinless , pefect. The fact that we continue to break commandments, fail to love God and each other, and screw up in countless human ways doesn’t change a thing; we are and remain continually redeemed – perfect.

I remember after Ella was born and Kelly was telling Doreen how amazed she was that she could love someone so much, to totally, so completely. Amazing. How can we do that? Lots of explanations can be made, but I think it is the God virus.

So, my family, my friends, my unknown extended family that’s it ~ we’re perfect and there’s nothing, no matter how are we try, it how we are – perfect. It is God’s love virus. Whether you believe in God or not is immaterial because it is not about us, but about God.

*Priscilla, the writer of the New Testament book, Hebrews found it so incredible that she quoted it with human just below the angels and her editor husband agreed. Not everyone agrees with my opinion as to who wrote Hebrews but so what.

Psalm 8 (from Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message)

A David psalm

¹God, brilliant Lord,

yours is a household name.

²Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;

toddlers shout the songs

That drown out enemy talk,

and silence atheist babble.

³I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,

your handmade sky-jewelry,

Moon and stars mounted in their settings.

⁴Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,

Why do you bother with us?

Why take a second look our way?

⁵Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,

bright with Eden’s dawn light.

⁶You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,

repeated to us your Genesis-charge,

⁷Made us lords of sheep and cattle,

even animals out in the wild,

⁸Birds flying and fish swimming,

whales singing in the ocean deeps.

⁹God, brilliant Lord,

your name echoes around the world.