Navajo Blankets and Beautiful Imperfections

I was recently invited to serve as a juror in a statewide art contest for high school students. While this was only my second time to participate in this contest, the other two jurors in my category had worked together for several years.

Part of our job that day was to select a handful of pieces to be awarded the coveted “Gold Seal”—the best of the best. We had narrowed the field down to just half a dozen beautifully-crafted entries. I mean, you would be blown away by the level of skill that these high school students demonstrate. Any of these pieces could have hung in museums, and most folks would be none the wiser!

One entry, in particular, was breathtaking. As I studied the piece in earnest, I could find absolutely nothing wrong with it. Absolutely perfect.

And therein was the problem.

It is sad, but in this day, plagiarism and copyright violations plague all art contests, particularly student art contests. We’ve had to disqualify many pieces because they were simply copies of previously published artwork. The challenge is learning to determine when you’re looking at a copy, and when you’re looking at the work of a genuinely talented, student phenom. To make things worse, the category I was jurying that day was Electronic Media, made up of works created on or with the assistance of a computer, using programs like Adobe Photoshop or Painter. It’s become relatively easy to fake a work of electronic art.

As we stood there, side by side, contemplating this incredible work of student art, one of the jurors broke the silence and said…

“Navajo blanket.”

To which the other juror knowingly said, “Yep. Just what I was thinking.”

I was lost. So I asked the question.

“What do you mean by Navajo blanket?”

They both laughed, and then one of them explained.

“Have you ever seen a Navajo blanket?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Well, then you know that Navajo blankets are renowned for their intricate, handcrafted detail. They’re amazing, precisely because they’re still created by hand. But these days, it’s just as easy to get that level of detail using computers and automated sewing machines. Factories can crank out blankets all day that look just as amazing as a Navajo blanket… but they’re not handmade. The way you know that you’re looking at a genuine Navajo blanket is to look for the tiny mistakes. Somewhere, there will be a tiny, little clue that lets you know that this blanket was made by a person, rather than a machine.”

The other juror chimed in, “You see, I keep looking at this piece of art for even one, tiny, little mistake that will let me know that this student created this piece, rather than simply copying it on their computer.”

“Ah! I see,” I said.

As I was driving home that day, I thought of another level of meaning to that illustration (no pun intended). Because after all, “this” is always about “that”.

It occurred to me that we expend a great deal of energy to cover our imperfections. I mean, we try desperately to hide our mistakes, faults and shortcomings. We shift blame, we lie, cover up, or simply hide them. But it is this paradox that makes us human…

We want everyone to think that we’re perfect in every way—like a perfect painting—without fault or mistake.

But we also desperately want to be known—even our faults—yet still be loved, in spite of them.

Or even because of them.

There really is no hiding our faults, because God knows us inside and out. God sees all and yet loves us completely. And I don’t think it’s in spite of our shortcomings, mistakes and weakness. I actually think it’s because of them.

Like a Navajo blanket, it is our imperfections—not our perfection—that draw us close to God, and others. Perfect people are unapproachable. Who wants to share their “dirty laundry” with someone who has seemingly never made a mistake? But we will open up if we feel that someone else has been where we are, gone through what we’ve been through and survived it. Our mistakes can become “touch points” for other folks to connect with us, IF we have the courage to own up to our faults, share them and acknowledge their role in making us who we are today.

I said that God loves us precisely because of our imperfections. The reason I say that is because it is our choices—right and wrong—that have made us into the person we are today. If we all made perfect choices every time, we would simply be clones of each other, cranked out by some “factory in the sky”.

God knows us better than we know ourselves. He sees every detail of our lives from the vantage point of eternity. He knows what drives us to do the things that we do, even better than we know ourselves. He sees the environment in which we live, our childhood scars, our pain and hurt, and taking ALL the “evidence” into consideration, he completely and graciously… understands.

“We do not come to God by getting it right. We come to God precisely by getting it wrong.” Richard Rohr

Unlike our human counterparts, God does not define us by our mistakes, but by the big picture of our lives. Thank God, we are not identified by our faults! Your identity—your value—is completely rooted in one simple thing: your Creator. You have value because of the Creator/Artist who fashioned you and brought you into existence.

If we stop hiding our imperfections, but learn to see the beauty in ourselves and in others, we’ll begin to appreciate, truly understand and love ourselves and others the way God loves us all.

You’re a genuinely amazing work of art, imperfections and all!