It’s a beautiful day here in Southern California. We had just enough rain to clean the dust off my plants and the sky is the most amazing, brilliant blue! I have just come in from my garden after taking a few pictures. The colors are so incredibly vibrant, I feel compelled to share the beauty of it with the rest of the world.
Sitting back at my computer, I scroll through the photos I shot, dismissing this one because its a bit out of focus, that one because a few of the flower petals look a little tattered and a few more for various reasons, all of them having to do with the fact that they weren’t perfect.
I love my garden. I love every single bit of it. I love the way the flowers age after sharing their glory with me all spring. I love the gentle droop of my crape myrtle branches, being weighed down by so many blooms. I love the transition of the way it looks after it’s been weeded or endured a heavy pruning to get it ready for the next season. I appreciate all the changes it goes through and the way God created such intricate and unique beauty that I get to look at every day. But when it comes to sharing my garden with the world, I find myself being very careful to mask the imperfect and only share the perfect. I call it my “Instagram Garden.”
I follow a lot of fellow gardeners on social media. We all share our work with each other and I find it inspiring to see how they design their own spaces. But there is a fine line that gets crossed every once in a while when I’m having a particularly frustrating time with my own garden. I move from being inspired by my fellow gardener’s abilities to being jealous that they don’t seem to suffer the same hardships that I do.
But I’d willing to bet that if I were to drive to their homes and see their gardens in person, I would see all of the same issues I have, maybe even more!
You see, there is no such thing as perfection here on earth; perfect is for heaven. It may feel like we come close once in a while, but I think that’s just God giving us a tiny glimpse of what heaven will be like. Those beautiful blooms on my pansies that seem to fade almost overnight, will go on and on in heaven!
Have you ever found yourself scrolling through social media when a tiny twinge of jealousy hits you? Apparently, the rest of the world is thinner than I am, more well off than I am, happier than I am, more energetic, more traveled, smarter…the list goes on and on. Just like only wanting to share the more perfect parts of my garden, people want to share only the more perfect parts of their lives with the world.
I believe we’ve all gone a little nuts wanting to portray only the best of ourselves to others. It’s like everyone has their real life and then they have the one they share with the rest of the world. There isn’t anything really wrong with putting on your best face for those that don’t know you well. I think the trouble comes when we start to believe the carefully curated online life is the only real one.
When we forget how to be real with ourselves, we can’t be real with others. If I ignore my faults and my own neediness at times, I have absolutely no patience with someone else’s faults and neediness. I wonder sometimes if the desire to live an “Instagram Life” is a huge part of the anger and divisiveness that drives a wedge between friends and family, neighbors and co-workers.
Have you ever wondered what the world would look like with fewer filters, special lighting or fancy angles? It makes me think of the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz.” The great, all powerful Wizard of Oz fills young Dorothy and her friends with fear, until her little dog pulls back the curtain and we discover he’s nothing more than a regular man. Suddenly he isn’t scary anymore. When he puts away the microphone and smoke machine, he is able to have a real conversation with them, and I’ve always thought he seemed a bit relieved to finally be able to just be himself.
Our world is full of both beauty and messiness. God created everything to be perfect, but once sin was introduced, things got messy. The ground got hard, making growing things challenging; relationships got complicated, causing people to point fingers and find fault; and our friendship with the Creator became so strained that He needed to send His Son to die so we could spend eternity in oneness with Him again.
Once we accept the fact that messiness and imperfection is a part of life and is here to stay, I believe there will be a feeling of relief, allowing us to finally be ourselves. I don’t have to feel jealous of someone because of their picture perfect “Instagram Life” because I know its just a picture; they are probably just as messy as I am. Suddenly, I’m not the only one going through stuff, I have a world of fellow strugglers just trying to get that perfect shot.
Just like I love every part of my garden, I know beyond a shadow of doubt that God loves me the same way. He loves my rather short attention span; He loves the way my freckles get more pronounced after a day in the sunshine digging in the dirt. He loves me when I’m faithful and He loves me when I’ve messed up. The lens God sees me though has no filters or special lights to hide my flaws. He sees me for who I am and He made me exactly the way He wanted me be so He could use me for the tasks He had planned out for me before I was even born!
And in the end, it doesn’t really matter what the world thinks of me, my God thinks I’m pretty great just as I am!
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! – Psalm 139:13-17
