I have to admit… Photoshop is an amazing program.  You can pretty much change or manipulate any photo to make an image look the way that you want it to look to a point of perfection.  Personally, I think it’s especially great on those days that somebody is taking pictures, and you have a big zit on your face and need it surgically removed through software.  Click, Click and it’s gone!  That simple!

This word “Photoshop” has become a typical word in our vocabulary.  It seems like every photo shoot I go on I am asked to photoshop something to make that person look better.  “Can you photoshop my wrinkles?”  “Can you photoshop this out of the background?”  “Can you photoshop me to have whiter teeth?”  “Can you photoshop my eyes?”  Everybody seems to want something photoshopped.

I totally get it and being a photoshop guy I am guilty of this also.  But I feel like we are creating a fake society of people that SEEM flawless in pictures, but in REAL LIFE are flawed and imperfect.  Think of how much this effects the kids growing up and how much pressure it puts on them when flawlessness is the expectation of society.  I can’t even fathom what some of these kids go through today dealing with not being accepted because they are not pretty enough.

It doesn’t stop with kids.  I feel like this also has a huge effect on people when searching for a mate.  Typically in pictures all we see is the perfect person with flawless skin, and a beautifully photoshopped face.  This pushes our expectations to desire an unrealistic view of a help mate.  So what happens when we see that person in real life and they aren’t flawless like they were in their pictures?  You feel like you have been lied to and your high expectations have been shattered.  Not only that but this flawlessness sets the tone of not accepting anything else.

We are creating a Photoshop World where human flaws are becoming no longer acceptable by our human society.  This is the total opposite of what God tells us. God says that we are  “fearfully and wonderfully made”.  He also tells us “there is no flaw in you”.   He created human kind in His own image and said that it was “Very Good”.  We have to remember no matter how much society tells you that you are not good enough, God is always there to pick us up and care for the imperfect person.  Photoshop will never create a flawless society because it is only changing a picture to look better.  It is in Christ that we can find a life that becomes more flawless because HE changes us from the inside out to be more like God who cleanses us of our imperfections.