Originally published Wednesday, 21 January 2015.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 (NIV)
He is so tiny: my little nephew with his dusty hair and minute fingernails. He is a good and perfect gift.
I only see my nephew for a few minutes. Our time together limited by the rules of the NICU he is in.
As I am introduced to this baby who will one day be a man, my brother touches his tiny head, and tells me about all the things that are just so right and so lovely about his tiny newborn son. He is a good and perfect gift.
I really want to hold this cute boy. A little boy, whose genes divided differently to my own, resulting in Down Syndrome. He is a good and perfect gift.
Sometime ago before my nephew was even conceived, maybe even before he my brother and sister-in-law dreamt of him, God began to change my ideas of what it means to be perfect.
Some of these thoughts began to change when I read Amy Julia Becker’s memoir of loving life with her daughter, Penny, who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome shortly after birth.
I’ve always struggled to be perfect. I’ve pushed and strained to mold myself into the image that I think everyone else wants me to be.
Amy challenged me in her book when she wrote about the meaning of the Greek word used here in James 1:17 for perfect. She wrote that Telos can be translated as perfect or as “wholeness, completion, the end for which you were created.”
I felt such freedom as I realised that I’m perfect whenever I am allowing myself to live fully towards the end for which I am created.
No comparisons.
No falling short of other’s expectations.
Just the freedom of being nothing but me before God.
Recently, I did the same exercise Amy did with perfect on the word “good” in James 1:17 and I found the original Greek for this verse uses the word “agathos”. This unfamiliar word basically describes someone or something that originates from God and is empowered by Him in their life, through faith.
It doesn’t talk about someone who does the right thing, or knows all the right words to say at the right times or never makes a mistake.
It speaks about a person originating from the source of Goodness and then allowing God to work in their life, through faith.
Sounds like the kind of person I want to be.
Sounds like the kind of person my nephew can be.
Sounds like the freedom God invited us to when he said, I have come that you might life, life and more life.
Ponder: What do you believe is a good and perfect gift from God? Do these new definitions change your thoughts about that?
Prayer: Lord, open my eyes so I can see myself more and more like you see me: as a good and perfect gift.
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- This was orginally published on my site in October 2014. To read more devotionals like this go to ilovedevotionals.com
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