Perfection

"Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire - wanting nothing." James 1:3-4

The Bible has a lot to say about patience. Patience, Longsuffering, Endurance...they are all bound up in each other. Longsuffering and Endurance are active - I see them in my mind's eye as men, struggling, sweating as they drag that daily cross up the dusty road. Patience -she - as the Biblical grammar states - is also active. But in a different way. Gently, femininely Patience works tirelessly within our hearts, while Endurance and Longsuffering are revealed through our actions. Patience works harder, night and day, in every Trial, Temptation, Joy, or Circumstance (such as babysitting two rambunctious children, as I am now) to make us - perfect. She may seem unloving, and uncaring at times - bitter beyond bearing...but like a firm mother, she knows what is best, and desires to present us to God in Christ Jesus - lacking nothing.

Do not resent Patience. She is your Friend.

I have always loved quotes..quotes, proverbs, poetry. I started a journal when I was probably about 10 years old, to collect any quotes or proverbs I would come across. Yes, I was a nerdy homeschooler that way. I remember standing in line for the diving board at a public swimming pool one summer. I couldn't have been any older then 10. Possibly 11. Maybe. The line of kids in front of me was long. When one child jumped off of the diving board it took awhile, because the next child was not allowed to dive until the child in the pool had reached the ladder. It was a safety precaution, to eliminate underwater concussions from children bonking heads. There was a hawk-eyed life guard sitting right there making sure we didn't have any fun - I mean, making sure we stayed safe. The little boy in front of me was voicing his frustration openly -

"Come on! Come on! Come on! Get outta the water!!" He would yell, wave his hands and dance around every time another child dove off. I looked solemnly down at him. He turned and faced me still yelling and hyper. When he paused for breathe, I looked down dramatically and quoted from memory, with all the ageless wisdom I could muster, my favorite German proverb:

"Patience is a bitter plant that has a sweet fruit." I told him.

"Huh?"

He looked at me with a wrinkled forehead and his mouth hanging open...he was silent about five seconds then he turned back and kept on yelling - my youthful pearl of wisdom lost on him. I remember this story so well...how deeply that proverb affected me when I first read it - simply because I like the metaphor.

Patience may seem bitter - her gentle ways cruel as she walks calmly through the gated garden of your heart, plowing and cutting and trimming - working hard in her gray, threadbare dress spun by Love. Her presence may seem unassuming, but you are always aware of the painful strokes of her hoe. Diligently, teaching us selflessly, she works and tends to purify our ways and to bring us into the fulness of JOY.

To make our hearts a place for a Weary Head to rest. A hidden garden, with high walls and an ornate gate. A spiritual paradise in full bloom - a myriad of shade and dancing sunlight, fertile ground, and delicious fruit tended by the calloused hands of Patience herself.

And roses. Many, many roses. Fragrant and thoughtful...some white in shameless purity.

Some stained deep crimson by the blood of the Savior.

Perfection.