Perfection? Eh?

“Religion is a big, beautiful, ugly thing. I read recently where Augustine said, “The church is a whore, and it is my mother.” And for reasons I don’t understand, Jesus loves the church. And I suppose He loves the church with the same strength of character He displays in His love for me. Sometimes it is difficult to know which is the greater miracle.”
[Don Millar]

You know, I finished this book about 3 weeks ago, and I have started a new book, but somehow I keep finding myself back at Millars' words. I was thinking about the words above, when Millar says that it is difficult to imagine which is the greater miracle - God loving me, or God loving the church. And it's so true. I'm sure we all grip about the church at some point, God knows I do - it's not relevant, i'm not getting anything from it, the worship just isn't my style... need I go on? The church is not perfect. As long as the church is filled with human beings, it will never be perfect. I think I forget that. I am not perfect, and I'm pretty sure no one in my local church is perfect. So then why do we expect our churches to be perfect?
Something else this got me thinking about was how Jesus loves me. Jesus really loves me. Did you catch that? Jesus really LOVES me. A friend painted me a picture of this a few nights ago,. heres how she put it... It's like, God's sitting in this big rocking chair, just rocking back and forth, as you do... and He's just thinking about me. Thinking to Himself, 'Wow. She's so beautiful.' 'Wow, she's just amazing.' Can you picture that? God takes time to just sit and think about you. That thought blew my mind. How awesome. How loved.