For my sister, who loves jigsaw puzzles and is a constant source of God’s love and peace in my life
I hate jigsaw puzzles. Seriously though. They drive me crazy. My family loves them and I’m the red-headed step-child that prefers to read and write instead of stare at 1000+ pieces of cardboard for hours on end.
But – there is something to be said about the victory of putting a piece in its place.
Why is that?
We as people spend our whole lives searching for the places we belong, for the people who will hold us dear, for the occupation that will bring us to life, for the activities that feel like second nature to us. There is peace and rest in finding where we fit.
In my prayer this morning, wrestling and struggling with things I don’t understand and that are outside of my control, I begged God for clarity. – Show me my little place in Your grand scheme of things. I don’t know where my gifts are needed. I don’t know where I am to shine the light that is You. I don’t know where may place is in your plan – but I am desperate for You, desperate to be Yours, and to love You and everyone else in the way you want me to, need me to. Show me what that looks like.
“I give it all to you God, trusting that you’ll make something beautiful out of me.”
And just now, I was writing a newsletter to the parents of my youth, and I wrote something on a completely separate track, that at the same time, somehow seemed to fit. At our youth nights, we’ve been talking about how to receive grace from God – divine life, goodness, love – and how important it is for us to live out that grace in our daily lives. I told my kiddos Sunday night, that when we do that, when we love in the name of Jesus and move as the Body of Christ in the world, we bring the kingdom of God to the earth. That’s the very thing we’re praying for in the Our Father, “thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
When we choose to love, to bring love into creation, to love those created, we offer creation back to the Creator. We help put the pieces together, one moment, one instant, one act of selflessness at a time.
And every time I think about this, I smile, and my soul hums, because it’s right. It fits.
Everything good, beautiful and life-giving flows from God and everything flows back to Him. When we love, when we live as children of the King, we proclaim Him as King, and bring His reign of love back where it belongs – here on this land we temporarily call home, that sings for Him who made it. When we love, we help put the pieces together.
There is peace and rest in all of creation when it finds where it fits. It fits in God, and the sun rises upon the world and all are warmed by His heart. When we love, He loves. When we love, we are one with Him, pieces of His Body, pulses of His heartbeat, rays of His splendor.
“And the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace….”
Peace…. where all the pieces fit.
I hate jigsaw puzzles. Seriously though. They drive me crazy. My family loves them and I’m the red-headed step-child that prefers to read and write instead of stare at 1000+ pieces of cardboard for hours on end.
But – there is something to be said about the victory of putting a piece in its place.
Why is that?
We as people spend our whole lives searching for the places we belong, for the people who will hold us dear, for the occupation that will bring us to life, for the activities that feel like second nature to us. There is peace and rest in finding where we fit.
In my prayer this morning, wrestling and struggling with things I don’t understand and that are outside of my control, I begged God for clarity. – Show me my little place in Your grand scheme of things. I don’t know where my gifts are needed. I don’t know where I am to shine the light that is You. I don’t know where may place is in your plan – but I am desperate for You, desperate to be Yours, and to love You and everyone else in the way you want me to, need me to. Show me what that looks like.
“I give it all to you God, trusting that you’ll make something beautiful out of me.”
And just now, I was writing a newsletter to the parents of my youth, and I wrote something on a completely separate track, that at the same time, somehow seemed to fit. At our youth nights, we’ve been talking about how to receive grace from God – divine life, goodness, love – and how important it is for us to live out that grace in our daily lives. I told my kiddos Sunday night, that when we do that, when we love in the name of Jesus and move as the Body of Christ in the world, we bring the kingdom of God to the earth. That’s the very thing we’re praying for in the Our Father, “thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
When we choose to love, to bring love into creation, to love those created, we offer creation back to the Creator. We help put the pieces together, one moment, one instant, one act of selflessness at a time.
And every time I think about this, I smile, and my soul hums, because it’s right. It fits.
Everything good, beautiful and life-giving flows from God and everything flows back to Him. When we love, when we live as children of the King, we proclaim Him as King, and bring His reign of love back where it belongs – here on this land we temporarily call home, that sings for Him who made it. When we love, we help put the pieces together.
There is peace and rest in all of creation when it finds where it fits. It fits in God, and the sun rises upon the world and all are warmed by His heart. When we love, He loves. When we love, we are one with Him, pieces of His Body, pulses of His heartbeat, rays of His splendor.
“And the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace….”
Peace…. where all the pieces fit.