Why do God's people, formed in His image and indwelt of His Spirit, make mistakes? Why does He let them? Does He not realize the pain that failure inflicts upon them? Could He not better reveal His glory through them by making them perfect little specimens of Him?

There's one obvious answer, that being that in creating us in His image He gave us free will, the ability to choose. Even if we choose to do what's right, we are still human. And no matter how hard they try, humans fail. Trying doesn't always mean succeeding. Resolve can vanish in a moment, and before we know it, the tears are falling over an action that looked good at the time but revealed its true and faded colors later.

So God's people fail because in all reality they can't help it. But could there be a purpose behind our failures? A greater purpose that makes even the worst mistakes turn the portrait of life into something raw and beautiful and, yes, even glorious?

Perhaps while we are yet wallowing in our fallenness, the Father is whispering to us to look higher. . .

Perhaps He is breaking us of our pride, reminding us that we are nothing without Him.

Perhaps He is showing us how small and frail we are while at the same time revealing again His greatness and His strength.

Perhaps He is allowing us to wander through the dry wastelands of despair so that He can shower down His mercies upon us and make us something more than we were before.

Could what breaks us be another way of God lifting us up? Is He showing us His love yet again, calling us to look on His face once more and find our true fulfillment and satisfaction there?

I like to think He is. If so, mistakes, once repented of, become more than blights upon our name. In the hands of the Father, they become reminders of who we are before Him and also of His love toward us as He gently lifts us time and again.

In the hands of the Father, even mistakes can become something beautiful.