Even though things are not as they could be, things at the present are as they should or must be. It doesn’t mean they will stay that way tomorrow, or even hours from now, but in the moment itself there is never any defect:
The wayfarer in this Valley seeth in the fashionings of the True One nothing save clear providence, and at every moment saith: “No defect canst thou see in the creation of the God of Mercy: Repeat the gaze: Seest thou a single flaw?”
Consider a child: Although they are not what they could be, in their state of being a child they are what they should be. Further, growth cannot be stopped! Appreciating the child as a child does not cause him to remain a child. Change is ineluctable.
We see faults in others because we look at what is in terms of what we think it should be. We reject it, reserving our love for another time, another day. This rejection is a form of hate. It is a willful denial of what is, an earnest wish that it were different. We are left tolerating the present in a state of inward revulsion, enduring it until our desired future comes about.
But in this state, how can we serve? Can we truly care for the people, the situations, that exist here and now? Like the child, loving the present as perfect in-itself does not preclude change. In fact, it assists change, is the best guide of change, because we are serving the person, not who we wish the person to become.
Relative to our potential, all things exist in a state of imperfection. So if God placed us here to learn how to love, that can only mean loving things in their “imperfect” state. If the world were suddenly transformed into its promised future, how could we develop the ability to love it, apart from its outward form?