Magnification of Faith

Hebrews 11

This passage gives us a list of our Faith bearing forefathers/mothers.  A great Cloud of witnesses as chapter 12 says.  It is interesting to me that like Sarah, all of these people's assets were not mentioned as evidence of perfection (as we sometimes assume).  On the contrary, they are evidence of God working to reveal his glory in spite of their weaknesses.  The great things God does in us and through us by our faith, resulting in obedience,  are magnified in comparison to the mistakes we make outside of faith.  this is why God does not condemn us when we screw up.
The visual example I have in my head is this: I see, for example, the life of Abraham written on a piece of paper.  All the good and all the bad.  I also see, a magnifying glass.  When I look at the page through the magnifying glass the things that pop out at me are the things he did by faith.  If we are not careful we tend to only look at his life through the magnifying glass leading us to believe he had achieved some level of perfection.  What we fail to see is that without the mistakes he made in his life there would be no need for a magnifying glass.  It is in comparison to the sinner Abraham really was that the things he did through faith are magnified, revealing the glory of God, not the glory of Abraham.