Flawless: A New Word

My husband carried the simple hardback book and laid it next to me as if it were a priceless treasure. In a way, it was. This book had lain in our hearts, awaiting completion, for forty-two years.

‭“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

The memories flooded and overflowed into my heart….

~~~~~~

The early ’80s were a strenuous time for the young married couple. They had battled a huge storm in their relationship and had come through with their love intact, albeit a little shaky at times. Words were tossed out and misunderstood, but always the love of Christ drew them back together.

She had gone back to work and left their toddler son in the care of dear friends, while he continued with his college classwork. The Children’s Literature class captivated him. God sparked creativity and birthed a story within his heart.

He asked her the question one night, “Will you illustrate my story?”

She set to work with the small sketchbook and tried to capture his vision in simple pencil drawings. Time was short, too short for anything more detailed, but the heart of the story sank into the deep places. It was a message of being lovingly created, just as you were meant to be.

She never felt adequate for the task.

But God continually revealed the truth of His sufficiency, working through them both. The teacher approved and gave him good words and good grades.

“Something should be pursued with this,” the teacher said.

“Something should be pursued with this,” the family and friends said.

The little sketchbook was held closely through the years, shared with the toddler son, then later with his brother and sister and their friends. It even won a regional award from their library.

But always she felt inadequate for the task.

“You are the book creator,” she told him. “I wish you could find a real artist to illustrate this, someone better than me.”

So he began to wonder if he should consider her idea. He found a friend who was an artist with much experience, and he raised the question to her. “Will you illustrate this simple story?”

She had no time for anything extra on her plate. So, in God’s flawless leading, the story was tucked away again, preserved for the unveiling of His much higher plan.

Another story took precedence for a time. Cute escapades of a mouse family occupied the couple’s discussions. Years had been added to their relationship, and words were easier now.

Always though, she felt inadequate for the task of illustration.

Twenty years had passed, when a new friend offered to share the simple book with an editor friend. This time the husband told the wife he would like to use her illustrations, updated with color.

She surrendered to the Lord’s call, and prayed as she worked at her kitchen table. There were days when the colors flew onto the pages as if wings were in her fingers. Finally the story was completed and a mock-up was sent to the editor.

The answer was not positive. The editor could not find a basis for the storyline. The illustrations were “naive & whimsical.” He tucked his book away, and she tucked her illustrating away.

For another twenty years.

Yet, all along, God never stopped writing His story. Through every human rejection sent, He was busy writing His much higher Word upon their hearts. He was renewing their minds in His flawless Word

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

Then, her prayers for his writing came to the surface again. Those little mice refused to be silent, as the Spirit of God revealed the plan of His choosing. As they learned, through the years, to delight in Him and His much higher thoughts and ways, He made their path straight in Him, to make His heart and story known.

And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Corinthians 3:3 ESV

The couple and their family rejoiced at the miracle of God’s fulfilling for Mouse-kins!

The husband had not forgotten the story they first shared together though.  God wanted His heart’s beauty and creativity to be unveiled and expressed not just through the story and its illustrations, but through their living testimony to Him.  The husband’s heart failure disease awakened an urgency to finish what God had given all those years ago, as He revealed the perfecting work of His heart for them.

But the wife could not re-illustrate any longer. The wings had left her fingers years ago, when her chronic illnesses seemed to steal away her creativity.

“Don’t worry,” the husband told the wife, “I have a surprise that I am working on. I’ve found a way to incorporate your original paintings into the story.”

For forty years she had carried the inadequacy of her creativity. She didn’t realize that as she prayed for his creativity through the years, all along, God was sealing the gift of His creativity in them both, through the Holy Spirit’s leading.

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So when my husband placed the gift of our book before me, I wasn’t sure what to think. How could my inadequate, “naive & whimsical” illustrations be placed not just next to me, but before our friends, our family, the world? But then, the Holy Spirit reminded me of His Word to us.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God

2 Corinthians 3:5 KJV

And the Word of God spoken so early in our relationship, before we were even married, had been fulfilled once again. His ways are so much higher than ours. He will bring His glory into our lives as we walk with Him. To let our expectations flow from Him (Psalm 62:5) and His much higher Way

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

John 15:16 ESV

And He is most glorified when we offer our weaknesses to Him. Our lack is where He loves to bring His sufficiency.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

1 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

As I picked up the book, Tree & Boy, I felt the weight of God’s flawless Word that had been purifying and refining my thoughts over all the years. He was revealing His much higher ones in and for me, through the ever present mind of Christ in me. Turning my eyes upon Jesus, He revealed the weight of His glory and sufficiency through my many chronic illness struggles. And in His grace I felt the word “inadequate” being changed to “flawless.”

Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

Proverbs 30:15 NIV

What a precious word for the year ahead of me: Flawless. As I looked up the meaning for the word flawless at Biblehub, I saw that it comes from the word pure, and can mean tested, refined, and purified. I shared my thoughts with my friend Anna, and we shared edits together of this poem God gifted for this year.

Every Word of God
Flowing from His heart
Tested genuine
Proving Christ for me.

Every doubt
Flowing from my accuser
Tested false
Proving Christ in me.

Every way of man
Flowing from the old man
Tested false
Proving I am a new creation

Flawless
     Only His Word
          Only His Way
               Only His Cross

Flawless
     I rest
          under
His shield
          Hidden
In Christ: my refuge.
           --Bettie and Anna

Will you join Anna and I in praying this prayer that God brought back to us from years ago, gifted and refined for all of us today?

Dear Holy Father,      

You are pure and perfect! You are altogether lovely, with no blemish found in You! Oh that our hearts would worship you in the splendor of Your Holiness! Thank You for coming to us, weak and lowly, to reveal Your holiness in us, for us and through us. 

May our hearts be opened to see and embrace the gift of Your perfection unfolding for us, through Christ Jesus. Thank You for Your Promise to  comfort all those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified (Isaiah 61:1 – 3). 

Father, as we look back upon our lives, take away all our regret. Give us eyes to see the vibrant colors of Your redemption unfolding, colors that cannot ever compare to our old, blinded ways of seeing. Lift up our bowed down heads to look full into the wonderful eyes of Jesus. Compel us to acknowledge His Headship and sufficiency for us. In our weakness and feelings of inadequacy, reveal Your power and perfecting work for us.

Awaken a godly sorrow in us, through Your living Word and testimony. Shift our focus from ourselves to Jesus, to look full into His wonderful face.

Even as we pray this prayer, help us to receive the gift of being led to repentance, and in coming into a new place, being able to see the healing of all regret gifted to us in Christ Jesus. Thank You for clothing us in Your pure and flawless garments, to the glory of Your holy and flawless Name. Thank You for prompting us, even now, to remember that we (Colossians 3:1-4, ESV): “have been raised with Christ, [to] seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [To] Set [our] minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For [we] have died, and [our] life is hidden with Christ in God. [To never forget that] When Christ who is [our] life appears, then [we] also will appear with him in glory.” Help us to sink into this truth, into You, our only Way, Truth and Life.

Continue to write Your flawless Word upon each of our hearts, perfecting Your power in our every weakness. May our eyes open to Your weaving of us – Your Body – together in love, as we come to acknowledge You in all our ways. May we bow to the mind of Christ, Your beautiful and creative Son in us, to receive His much higher and more creative thoughts and ways for us.

In Jesus’ precious and flawless Name we pray,

Amen

I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Isaiah 61:10 NIV

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