When we are born, God puts a single puzzle piece down and so begins one of His many spectacular and unique designs. Throughout our lives, we have ups and downs, thrills and catastrophes and each of these moments will have a part in God’s ultimate design. We can never really see or comprehend why God chooses to put certain pieces where He does. God doesn’t give us the full picture because He wants us to have to trust. Even though there are times in our lives when we think our puzzle makes no sense, we have to remember that God still holds the pieces and He will make something beautiful. It’s when we try to take the pieces from Him that our puzzle is in jeopardy.
Eventually, our individual puzzles are completed. They might still look a little funny and probably not what we expected but there is a reason for that. It took me a while to realize that one person’s puzzle is in the shape of a larger puzzle piece. Yes, you guessed it… each one of our pieces is a part of the largest and most intricate puzzle imaginable. We each have our place and God has organized the madness into a stunning story of His love.
It is the coolest thing to be able to look back at my life so far and see the pieces come together. I didn’t always trust God and I didn’t always like what He was doing but I realize more and more how He has brought it all together in spite of me and all my faults.
One thing about the race is that so many things are unpredictable. When I signed up for the race, I had to pick a route and there were a few to choose from. At first, I had chosen a route that had Swaziland on the list. I was going to choose that route because I sponsor a child named Lindelwa, who lives in Swaziland. However, when I talked to the AIM office, they had said not to pick a route based on that simply because of the fact that things change. So I decided on a different route. The route I chose was scheduled to go to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
Guess where I am! J
Yep, I’m in Swaziland and a few days ago, I got in a truck and took a two hour drive to meet my sponsor child.
It was an insane process trying to get there. I have no internet where I live up on the mountain so most everything had to be done through my mom back at home. After weeks of bad communication and language barriers, I had it set and I was ready to go. Then I remembered AIM has a buddy system rule so I had to get someone to go with me. Background checks are supposed to take three weeks to go through but Jenny’s went through in a few days, praise the Lord.
World Vision set everything up and put us in the only hotel in the area. It was $90. Yikes. Jenny and I got there in the afternoon and we were excited to sit in the room and enjoy being able to use some internet and maybe watch some TV. If I had to spend that much, at least I would be able to enjoy it right? Well, the internet didn’t work so I went to the front desk to ask what we needed to do. He says, “I’m sorry ma’am, but I think our internet was stolen.” So we turned on the TV and it was all static. Hmmm, maybe a warm shower would be good. Oh wait… no hot water! So Jenny and I played card games until dinner. We sat down at our five star restaurant and ordered some pizza. It was $9 so we decided to split it. It was microwave pizza with not even a bit of crisp. Breakfast was good though, other than the ox liver. Even though the hotel was a disaster, it was pretty hilarious and a night I won’t forget.
After breakfast, we moved out and went to a grocery store to buy some things to give to Lindelwa and her family. A lady from World Vision helped me get things they would need and I bought a stuffed bear and a dress for her.
We pulled up to Lindelwa’s house and her entire family, cousins included, was standing in a line waiting for me. The last picture I had of her was when she was three and she is six now. There were a couple other girls there and I didn’t even know for sure which one she was! They told me to try and pick her out and, thank God, I picked the right little girl. She walked over to me with some hesitation and shook my hand. I held out my arms and, with a little push, she hugged me. We went into a room with her family and I told them how I got here and how God worked everything out. We took turns singing and dancing. Then we brought in the groceries and gifts and Lindelwa’s mom wept. I spent $50 on groceries for her family and she wept.
All of the money spent, problems faced and frustrating moments up to that point were forgotten. I never knew how much it would mean to her. I never knew how I would feel seeing Lindelwa clutch the teddy bear I got her. I couldn’t even imagine how it would feel to have the girl whose picture had been on my fridge for three years sitting in my lap.
Just another puzzle piece added to my life. God had been planning on this one piece for so long and I had no idea. How unbelievable is that?
