Today, during a couple hours where our kids were well cared for, my wife and I stole some time together to share breakfast and talk about the stuff of life, love and our amazing God.  We had the rare opportunity to sit and talk under a beautiful canopy of oak, maple and shagbark hickory trees.  What a time we had!  The sun was high and the light played off the leaves in a beautiful visual symphony.  That didn't last long, though. The sitting, I mean. 

No, at least not for me; I was foraging.  See, it's fall in Chicagoland and during the early fall in Chicago, I temporarily share the burden of the squirrels and begin a hunt for shagbark hickory trees.  These trees are home of some of the best nuts around: hickory nuts.  If you've never had a hickory nut, think about a walnut..now, stop thinking about walnuts because hickory nuts are a hundred times better than walnuts.  Okay, think of a pecan, think of that natural, sweet flavor of a pecan- pecan pie, pecan crumbled over ice cream sundaes; yum, pecans.  Got it?  Now boost that flavor a bit, give it a hint of wild and you've got shagbark hickory goodness.  They're small, and they're a pain to crack, but when you get 'em, you're a happy forager.  Today, I was a happy forager.

Anyway, I got Anne comfortable, seated in a place where the canopy was just thick enough to block direct light, but thin enough that no hickory nuts fell on her.  This was good, because the nuts (about as big as a half-dollar) were still falling while we talked.  Beyond the menace of dodging the falling nuts, I appreciated the soft thud when they fell because newly fallen hickory nuts are less likely to contain grub worms.  Imagine my surprise, though, when I ran to pick up a nut, only to find that it had a bruised casing!  It had just fallen not twenty seconds prior!  How could it be flawed already!  I was slightly miffed.  I'm no aficionado, but I was frustrated when I realized that the very act of falling from over twenty feet up was causing each and every hickory nut to have a little gash in it from hitting the ground.  Roots, rocks, other hickory nuts and shells don't make for good bedding and every nut showed it's wear. 

Forgive the strained analogy, but I couldn't help thinking of the connection between these little forest jewels and the life of each and every one of us.  Are you ever disappointed when you see your own flaws?  Ever surprised when you see all the ways you don't measure up to the standard you or others have for yourself?  Guess what, we're fallen, we're flawed.  From head to toe, we're imperfect.

As a Christian, though, I read a promise in the Bible that gives me hope and encouragement.  It's this promise: 

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  [17] For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,  [18] as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Cor. 4:16-18 (ESV) 

The Apostle Paul (who penned 2 Cor. 4:16-18) was sent by God to plant and build churches.  For Paul, this simple call had a promise of beatings and death accompanying it.  Paul was beaten "countless" times, probably had bad eyesight, appeared weak and was even challenged by his own people (2 Cor. 11:23; Gal. 6:11; 2 Cor. 10:10)!  He had cause to bemoan his weaknesses!  But he didn't! 

My friend, we're nut cases!  That is, our lives have blemishes too, we're flawed!  We're not yet what we will be!  Yet, if we are in Christ, those are all just nut casings!  They seem so significant when inspected but the fact is that our real value, the stuff that God cares about is not external.  No, it's the inner nature that is being made beautiful by the Lord. 

Are you tempted to lose heart today?  Are you overwhelmed by your weaknesses?  Have you or someone else determined that you're not smart enough, pretty enough, fast enough, fit enough, or have enough of your act together?  Well, guess what, if you'll follow Jesus, God's not done with you yet.  A time is coming when all our blemishes will be cast aside and the place where God is at work in us -our character, our hearts and our souls- those places will be purified and displayed in radiance.  In that day, we won't be thinking of bumps, bruises and blemishes, but of the unhindered, unveiled, beauty and glory of God!

So today, try this: instead of regretting your failures and emphasizing the failures of others, try rejoicing in this fact, the God who made you and knows your faults better than anyone else- this God has made a way for you to be known, not by your flaws, or the bruises in your life, but by joy and beauty of Jesus Chriist lived in you; the life of of God and beauty of the perfect Son of God.