Fun fact, my favorite past time is doing puzzles. I’m like scary good because I have been doing them with my grandmother since I was younger. Now that I’m faster than her she doesn’t like to do them with me. I hadn’t done one in a while but when I was home before my trip with nothing much to do I started a puzzle! God likes to use things I fixate on to teach me life lessons and since puzzles are so mind consuming God enlightened me to some life lessons I felt like He wanted me to share.
a.) Our lives are much like puzzles created by God.
Much like looking out from an airplane God has a birds eye view of our lives. When God created me He saw all my puzzle pieces that needed to fall into place and fit together to create who He desired for me to become. The perspective God sees is my life coming together piece by piece. Though from my perspective things might look like a collision on the interstate there is peace that comes from faithfully accepting that things aren’t always going to go as I planned, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t what God planned.
Our puzzles aren’t identical, like our lives we each have different pieces that God fits together to grow us into who He desires us to become and our purpose to fulfill. We’ll have wounds and pieces missing, our finished product won’t be perfect. Our puzzles, our lives, are imperfectly perfect in Gods eyes. Only God can see what lies on the road ahead, what puzzle piece comes next. God may be still working on the border when we want Him to be working on the middle. We’ll never know why some pieces had to occur, or the process on which they were placed, but we can rest simply in knowing that God sees things from His perspective. God stands over the puzzle, over our lives, keeping everything in sight.
b.) The World Race is just one piece of my puzzle.
“Jesus seemed to say that all we would need to do is to scrape together the pieces of our lives that had fallen on the ground, bring those pieces to Him, and He would start using them.” Bob Goff
Being usable by God is just the beginning to an amazing adventure with Him. Usable is defined as capable or in good enough condition to be used. We are all usable because all of US are ABLE to make a choice to say yes to what God wants rather than say yes to what the world wants. (credit: Pastor Joel, Eliot Baptist Church) Every time I pick up a puzzle piece I make a choice of where I want it to go, God may lay it in front of me but I have the control to pick it up and say “yes this is the one”. I could let the mistakes I made in life have control over me to define who I am but I chose not to. God can use these pieces too, our mistakes, our sins, to influence His Kingdom and reach those that others may not.
c.) Patience. Determination. Strategy.
I’ve learned patience. If anyone has done a puzzle you know they don’t just happen in one day.
I’ve learned determination. See if you still finish a puzzle after your cat knocks it completely on the floor for the second time.
I’ve learned strategy. You can’t just dump the puzzle onto the table and begin, you have to first have to flip them all over, then separate out the border or color coordinate into separate containers.
Patience, determination and strategy are lessons applicable to our lives and spiritual growth. We need patience each day to face tasks and patience to gain wisdom. We need determination to finish when the enemy makes giving up seem so much easier. We need strategy because lets face it, sometimes the hard way is not always the best way to do it and strategic prayer can be a life saver!
Brave each day seeing through Gods perspective not our own. See through the mundane to figure out how God might be using you or what He might be trying to teach you. And maybe pick up a puzzle once in a while because they are just awesome.
