Imperfectly Perfect

This morning I saw this tweet from "The Nester:"

Time for the #idhtbptbb party! thenester.com/2012/02/its-no… come link up?

That crazy hashtag stands for "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful."

And the first thing I thought of was this chalk drawing.

You can't even imagine how I treasure this piece of art hanging in my house. About 13 years ago, when she was a teenager and oft used babysitter, Rachel Casey Haaman, (now a wife, mom of 2, and missionary) drew this chalk drawing for me at my request.  She is an amazing talent.

I gave her a picture of me holding Luke in the room in my dad's clinic where I was born. I wanted her to incorporate that setting but replace me with my doctor husband on one side and my doctor father on the other.

I gave Rachel a couple more pictures - one of Lou and one of my dad, and she melded all three into the masterpiece above. I couldn't find the other pictures today to include in this post - an imperfect little detail that kind of bothered me - but "idhtbptbb." And really, all this background information about the drawing is a bit of an aside, but I had to include it and give the deserved kudos to Rachel.

The reason I thought of this chalk drawing for this link up party was not because I thought what Rachel did wasn't perfect. I actually thought it was amazingly perfect. I thought of it because of what happened as we were bringing that perfect chalkboard drawing in the house. I was carrying it through the kitchen, being so careful not to rub it up against anything, when my sweet little Faith - my very, very tactile/kinesthetic learner Faith, thought the drawing was amazing also, and just had to touch it....

Can you see her three fingers reaching out to touch that chalk and then moving them down the chalkboard? Bless her heart.  She didn't know and she just couldn't help herself.  I don't remember exactly what I said when this happened. I'm assuming I've blocked it from my memory because I would be mortified. I hope Faith doesn't remember it either. But I do remember being bummed every time I looked at it for quite a long time. Those three finger trails screamed at me.

I don't know exactly when the change happened - when I realized that, not only did those finger marks not bother me, but they were part of the beauty of that drawing now. How did they ever bother me in the first place? I feel silly that they bothered me.

All I see now when I see those finger trails is my sweet little Faith and her sweet little hand reaching out to touch something she thought was interesting and beautiful.  I love that she loves to touch things - how God built that into who she is.

So my perfect drawing (thanks again, Rachel!) is actually more perfect now. That little "imperfection" at the bottom added just the touch it needed. It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. It just needs Faith's touch to be beautiful.



To read a few more encouraging idhtbptbb stories, visit The Nester.