Puzzles

For your thoughts are not my thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8


Some of my grandchildren love puzzles. Thankfully so does my husband because Grammy is not a puzzle person. I can sometimes manage the ones that have 25 pieces but beyond that, well, let’s just say I’m challenged.
I work in an elementary school. You may or may not realize it but along with all the other details of the job, I think an elementary school principal has to be fairly adept at puzzles. First there’s the challenge of which children go to which teacher. Then there are lunch schedules, recess and resource schedules, which have to be juggled at testing times to accommodate that schedule, a lot of little pieces to make a whole.

Those things to me are tiny, little tiny, infinitesimal comparisons to God’s puzzle. Can you imagine? (By the way, if your answer is yes, you are a far better person than I.) I’ve been in many conversations about God’s will. Recently it seems to come up every day. Someone, at some point, mentions how they don’t understand, or are trying to accept, the will of God. That is because in the enormous puzzle that is God’s will, we are a tiny piece. Picture not the giant puzzle piece of the fifteen piece floor puzzle but the one piece out of the five thousand piece puzzle, then go a bit smaller and in the scheme of eternity, that’s us. No wonder sometimes life doesn’t make sense to us. From our perspective we have to take it on faith that there are corners and edges to this puzzle so far away from us are they.

When things get to be too much for me it helps me to see it that way. Something that feels just so wrong, so painful to me, may well be a catalyst to someone else that causes them to seek the will of God. My life is all I know. I cannot see the ripple effects of my actions. God knows what chain of events my words or actions have set off. He knows what needs to be done and how He can use even my worst mistakes. I only know my own situation and maybe a bit of what you tell me about yours.

From our point of view certain things seem terribly disparate. We see someone get the blessing we’ve been seeking and ask why her and not me? A bit later we hear about someone else’s misfortune. Do we ask then why her and not me? Do we even remember to pray for her and praise God for our safety? Life is complicated, for sure. But consider this, God is in charge of everyone’s life even the people who refuse to acknowledge Him and the ones who serve other gods. That puzzle is far, far, far beyond my imagination.

I wouldn’t want to be a school principal. It was tough enough juggling the schedules and agendas of my own four children. The idea of having responsibility for a thousand or more children, plus the adults it takes to educate them is outrageous to me. God’s responsibilities are unfathomable. So as I ponder the idea of God’s giant puzzle I have to ask myself why it is then that I so often think I know what He should do. Does that sound familiar to you?

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