Unedited

I have always loved taking pictures.

From my parent’s Polaroid to my first Kodak Disc Camera (totally dating myself here), 

I loved capturing life’s moments.

Back then you had to wait for your pictures to be developed at CVS.

Impatient, I would usually get the “hour” service.

And always double prints, in case I wanted to share with a friend.

Today, we take pictures on our phones and share with 100 people immediately.

If we don’t like the angle of the picture, we delete it and try again.

We crop out “unsightly” areas that we don’t want others to see.

And while Snapchat filters and edits can be fun, these images are far away from what we started with … unedited versions of ourselves.

We don’t just do this in pictures.

We edit many things in our day to day life.

We are careful about what we allow others to see.

My house may appear one way if you come to visit.

But if you open the door to my bedroom, you will likely find all of the things that I had piled on the counter that I did not have time to put away.

Why do we edit our lives so much?

Fear of rejection? Judgement ?  Shame?

Sometimes, we believe we have to edit ourselves before we come to God.

Like getting a visitor at our home, we try to hide the things we don’t want Him to see.

But there is nothing about us that surprises our Creator.

Not our emotions.

Not our bad habits.

Not our appearance.

He sees all of life’s moments.

We cannot hide anything from Him.

“ Lord, you have examined me

    and know all about me.

 You know when I sit down and when I get up.

    You know my thoughts before I think about them.

 You know where I go and where I lie down.

    You know everything I do.

 Lord, even before I say a word,

    you already know it.

 You are all around me—in front and in back—

    and have put your hand on me.

 Your knowledge is amazing to me;

    It is more than I can understand.

 Where can I go to get away from your Spirit?

    Where can I run from you?”  Psalm 139 : 1 -7

Friends, He knows everything about us.

Amazingly, He still loves us.

The unfiltered, unscripted, unedited version of us.

But our heavenly Father sees His children through the filter of His love.

His perfect love.

“There is no fear in love. Perfect love puts fear out of our hearts. People have fear when they are afraid of being punished. The man who is afraid does not have perfect love.”  

1 John 4: 18 NLV

I am grateful that I do not need to edit myself before I come to our God.

He sees all of me and through His grace loves me anyway.

Friends, do you want God to be a visitor in your home or to take up residence there?

There is no need to hide what we don’t want Him to see.

There is no need to edit yourself.

There is nothing to fear.

Because His love for us is perfect.

Amen.