The Perfect Longing

by Rebecca Irwin


What is it in our human race that wants perfection?

This question puzzled me this week as I scanned the LA Times headlines...a Governor tried to sell a Senate seat - imperfect! A celebrity cheated on his wife - imperfect! A money manager cheated people out of millions - truly imperfect! Why is the standard so golden? Why do we gasp when people fall so short? Haven't we come to expect this kind of thing?

We even desire the moments around us to have Martha-esque perfection. Scan the magazine headlines and you will see tips on finding the perfect gift! Cook the perfect holiday meal! Have a perfectly wonderful time! Achieve a flawless look! The perfect look for the season! You can go on, can't you? They are so familiar to us.

Sadly, what appears perfect, rarely lasts. In our skepticism, we wait to catch famous people failing. We want to see cellulite on a beautiful person's body. We try to expose powerful people abusing. We want to implicate the person that seems too good. We strain to hear the story of our neighbor's failure.

This Christmas season, it struck me that a longing for the Messiah like the one Simeon had is still present today. We long for the Perfect to come. We long for Christ to conquer our modern-day Romans. We want to be freed from our self-imposed slavery and idol worship. We inherently want all things to be made new. We do, in fact, long for perfection. It is the tension that Paul wrote about to the Corinthians "For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known."

Jesus, we praise you that your perfect work has begun! Your kingdom has broken into this world. In the life of Jesus we catch a glimpse of perfection. We see him restore perfect health. We see him resolve hunger. We see him weep at death. We see him quell fear. So, Father, we eagerly await the Messiah's second coming, when this imperfect madness will be finished. When we will see a new heaven and a new earth - and we will finally see perfection. Amen