|
There is
rarely time anymore, but one thing I
have always enjoyed is sitting down to a card table in the family room and
"tackling" a jigsaw puzzle. There is something so soothing about it. It’s a
time when I can relax and just "hang out" with God. It’s amazing the
conversations that we carry on while searching for the "corner pieces" and just
the
right shade of blue for the sky. I guess you could say that, in a way, God and I are
painting a picture together.
And speaking of painting - my all time favorite artist is Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Lights. No trip to the city would be complete if we didn’t go to
his gallery. There is something so warm and wonderful about his paintings. My goal is to
own one of his prints. The challenge is going to be deciding which I like best! So, you
can imagine my delight when one of our daughters got me a jigsaw puzzle for Christmas and
the puzzle was a Thomas Kinkade picture! What fun to put that one together!
Did you realize that our lives are very much like a jigsaw puzzle? In the beginning it
would appear that we’re just a bunch of seemingly unrelated pieces in a cardboard
box. But, did you also realize that even at that stage God saw the completed picture? And
because He is so loving, He allows us to see what it will look like
when it’s completed.
When you purchase a puzzle, you are given the picture on the
cover of the box. Can you image opening a puzzle, dumping all the pieces out onto the
table, but not having the slightest idea what the puzzle is to be?
God has given us a "picture" for each one of our
lives. It’s His Word and all that He has promised us in it. Everything in it shows us
exactly what we will look like when God is finished with us. He doesn’t leave us in
pieces, lying on a table without a clue as to what and who we are. He shows us the whole
picture – Life and Life abundantly.
The first thing I do when I start a puzzle is to find the border pieces. Putting them
together at the start sets the boundaries for the picture. I know the size and the shape
of it. Our border pieces are the boundaries that God has set before us. Those boundaries
are God’s principals that He sets forth in His Word. Deuteronomy 28 pretty much says
it all. God tells me what I can do, what I shouldn’t do, and the consequences of
adhering to them. Without those principals, without those "boundaries" I
wouldn’t have the slightest idea as to the size and shape of my life’s picture.
After I know the size and shape of the jigsaw puzzle, I
begin to sort the remaining pieces by their color. That’s how I determine where they
are to be placed in the picture. God has our lives sorted into "colors". And He
knows exactly where each "color" goes in our puzzle. One color might represent
my personality traits. When God created me, He knew exactly how and where those traits
would be used to further His kingdom. Another color might be the gift that God has given
me. Again, He knows where He needs those talents.
As I walk in faith and obedience, as I serve Him, puzzle
pieces start to fit together. The picture starts to take shape. The more pieces that are
put into place, the clearer the picture becomes. And the clearer the picture becomes, the
closer I know I am to seeing the finished puzzle.
But do you know what the whole key is to putting a puzzle together? It’s patience,
and doing it right. If I really wanted to, I could become frustrated, get in a hurry and
start "forcing" pieces where they weren’t meant to be in the picture. If
might even work for a while, but it won’t be long before I have myself in real
trouble, and I have to take a lot of the puzzle apart and start over. It would have been
so much easier to take my time, and make sure I was putting the right tiles into the right spots.
How true of our lives! If we don’t
allow God to "put us together" in His timing, in the order that we need to
be put together, and allow Him to put all the pieces in the right place, we
can end up in real trouble. Allowing Him to be the "author and the
finisher" (Hebrews 12:2), means the completed picture will be perfect
and will bring much enjoyment and pleasure to Him and those who "view" us.
|
