Two weeks ago my husband and I purchased new light
fixtures for our kitchen. Ever since we moved into this home over five years
ago, I’ve disliked very much (to put it mildly) the track lighting that was
there. Why we didn’t replace it when we renovated the entire kitchen floor to
ceiling (well, almost), I don’t understand. Maybe we just didn’t want to go to
the extra expense. Nevertheless, I had put up with them long enough! Perhaps
watching too many home renovation shows had made me long for those lovely
pendant lights. There always seems to be something else to make the house a
little more perfect.
After they sat in the boxes on the floor for a week, I
decided last Saturday we had better put them together – you know, just in case
something was wrong and we had to return them. I began laying out all the
pieces on the dining room table and picked up the instructions. Hmmmmm…..lack
of instructions was more like it! They were scant at best, but between them and
the picture on the box, I began to make some sense of how to assemble the fixtures.
Funny, my husband is the electrical engineer, but I was the one trying to
figure out how they went together! He began helping, but quickly became
frustrated because certain parts were just not fitting well.
“Lack of quality control,” he kept muttering, “With all
the modern technology you’d think they could make all the shades and frames the
same! There’s no precision, no quality control!”
We finally had one light fixture totally assembled and
armed with the knowledge of how to do it, minus the instruction sheet, we began
the second one. Same problem!
“You’d think for the money we paid for these, they could
get it right!” we complained to each other. Of course, we don’t expect
perfection, but sliding those semi-circular glass shades into their frames was a lot trickier
than we anticipated and took every ounce of patience we could muster.
At last, we began to screw the base onto the extension rod
– the final step. We were almost done! But alas, they wouldn’t fit together
properly; there was a gap of about one quarter of-an-inch. When we tried to
tighten it, a section came apart! “Now what do we do?!!” we both exclaimed. We
were both so tired and frustrated after an already busy week, we had looked
forward to just getting them installed.
So, back to the store I went with the almost assembled
light fixture. Thankfully, the lighting guy opened up another box and just exchanged
the two defective parts. I guess he could sense we would not be too excited
about putting a third one together from scratch.
As you can see from the picture, the lights are now
installed, thanks to the assistance of our son, and we are very pleased with
the results. Our kitchen finally looks complete and well, almost perfect.
All this reminded me of a couple Bible verses about
perfection. As Paul concluded his first letter to the Corinthians he exhorted
them to, “Aim for perfection.” [i] Jesus instructs us to, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly
Father is perfect.”[ii]
Of course, God is
the only one who is perfect in every way. In Psalm 18:30-32 we read, “As for God, His way is perfect; the word of
the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him. For who is
God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me
with strength and makes my way perfect.”
Then I found a
verse I hadn’t taken notice of in the same way before. It says, “To all (earthly, human) perfection I see a limit; but your
commands are boundless.”[iii]
I’m so glad I know
and serve the One God who is perfect in every way! I’m thankful He has provided
His perfect Word to guide me in becoming more like Him every day as I learn His
truths and seek to live by them. He is the One who takes all the pieces of my
life and fits them together with perfect precision. And since He is the One who
designed and created me, He doesn’t need any instruction sheet!
Until next Sunday,
Kathy
Magnificent! (As usual. :-P )
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