Jigsaw Puzzle

I like puzzles.

They are so enjoyable and relaxing. Call me an old lady, but I do love them. Hand me a big mug of good, strong black coffee and a nice hard puzzle and I have hours of entertainment.

But I am slowly realizing life is like a puzzle. My life, your life, our life together.

As human beings, we try to "plan" our own future. In junior high, we imagine ourselves as this glamorous high school student who is dating the star of the football team, just like on T.V. In high school, we picture our mature, adult college-self on the dean's list, majoring in philosophy, or creative writing. We picture ourselves meeting a handsome young man with a heart for the Lord and a smile that kills. You would marry your young handsome man fresh out of college, or at least by the age of 25. You would wait a few years to have kids, leaving plenty of time to travel the world together. Soon after you would settle down and start having kids. Three, maybe four, named Liam, Teddy, Jacson, and Ivy. Our life is full of planning; it's a wonder how we ever accomplish anything while dwelling so much on the future.

We plan all of these fantastic things for ourselves, but what happens when our plans only dissolve and disintegrate in the hectic life of the unsympathetic world. What happens if you are still single upon college graduation? Human tendency is to rail our fist at God. "How dare He not give me the things I deserve? I've been a good person. I've served in the church. I've never partied in college. The least He could do is send me a man! Susie SoAndSo slept around all through college and she already has a godly guy! It's just not fair!" Two problems with this concept. One: God never promised us anything. Nor does He owe us for anything. Just because we are "good" people, does not mean we have the right everything we desire and more. The second problem with this is we don't want God to be fair; if God was fair, none of us would be living, breathing right now. By His common grace, I am able to breathe in and out. I am able to type the words on this keyboard, and you are able to read my blog. Even the ability to read and understand languages is an example of His grace. We all deserve death. Right. Now. We all know we deserve hell after we die, but many of us don't realize we are deserving of hell in the present, the current. We serve God, not because of the things He provides for us (health, nutrition, housing, etc. and even though He does provide those things for us), we serve God because He.Is.God. Plain and simple. Nothing compares to Him. Take all those temporary things away, and He is still God.

But anyways, back to my analogy of the puzzle. Sorry for the tangent. haha.

When we try to plan our own life, it is like a four year old trying to shove a piece into a puzzle that doesn't fit, doesn't belong. No matter which way he turns the piece, it will never fit. Shoot! Who knows if the piece even has a place in the puzzle at all!

The point is this: God has all the puzzle pieces. Each and everyone. And day by day, He is adding a piece to my puzzle, your puzzle. It may be a special memory, a simple laugh, a new revelation about His character, or something as simple as getting up and going to work, or as hard as loosing a loved one. Whatever the puzzle piece looks like, He knows what the final product should, and will look like and when exactly to add it (Phil. 1:6). And every piece is for His glory, and in the end should reflect His glorious face.

So here's the question: Are you going to let God gently fill in your puzzle, so that in the end your picture might be complete and whole?

Or are you going to push, shove and fight God the entire way, trying to turn His picture into your own?

Decisions yours.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:25-34 ESV)