I planted a nectarine tree in my backyard, which finally produced this year. My expectations ran high until the blossoms started turning into fruit that had sap coming out of them. You heard right. It wasn’t sap coming from the tree, but from the fruit itself.
My wife learned that a bug scars the fruit when it first blossoms. Then when the fruit starts to ripen it becomes deeply scared and deformed. We were about to throw the fruit away until she read an article on how tasty the unscarred portions of the fruit are. And it was true! Yummmm.
We are all scared individuals – some simply stained by the old sin nature and for others life has piled it on. Yet in Christ, we are all seen by God as perfect while we’re in process of being made perfect (Hebrews 10:14). No, this is not a contradiction. While we are in the process of becoming like Jesus God already sees us as perfect, like Jesus. Why? We’re in Jesus’ hands (Col. 3:3). Like a nectarine with my fingers wrapped around it, the Father sees Jesus when He sees us, not the nectarine. Isn’t that cool?
Like that nectarine we are both scarred and sweet at the same time. We are both perfect and flawed. This is true of every believer no matter who you are or what you or others have done to you. We are perfectly flawed people with a choice. We can choose to be real and open with each other so we can get the strength we need to face life’s daily challenges and the junk thoughts that are in our head. Maybe those around my friend, including me, had appearances of being all sweet that kept them from showing their scars and reaching out to us. As a perfectly flawed believer in Christ I’m choosing to stay on the journey to continually learn how to be real with those around me.

Set Free Noww“W”