This past year, I have learned to enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles, usually 1,000 piece puzzles. Since my wife Claudia died just over one year ago now, I find this to be one good way to keep my mind occupied and fill up some of the new “alone time” I have now. (By the way, I’ve discovered that “alone time” is not the same as being lonely, although I obviously feel that at times as well!)
I think a lot of people think our lives are like a big jigsaw puzzle!
We think if we can just find and perfectly match the right pieces (our mate, friends, jobs, families, paycheck, homes, vacations, locations, good health, etc.) everything will “fall into place” and the real picture of our life will come into focus and be a beautiful scene depicting everything we’ve always dreamed life should be like! Well, sorry to tell you this, but your fairytale life is NEVER going to happen perfectly as you think it should! WHY, you ask? Well, if you’re a Christian, you should already know this! The Bible tells us clearly, page after page, that we live in a world infected by SIN, and we are all infected with sin ourselves, and the result is a constantly messed up world that falls far short of what God created us for. That’s why we have war, disease, hatred, fear of others, divisive parties that want to control your life and tell you how to live, and finally, we all end up dying physically!
Now, that certainly doesn’t mean that life on this planet, even though flawed by sin, can’t be beautiful and filled with joy! We learn to love each other, and our lives, in spite of our imperfections! I was blessed with a wonderful marriage to Claudia for 42 years. But, it was not perfect, she was not perfect, and I was far, far, far less perfect than she was! Even though we are flawed, we still learn to love, cherish, and need each other. And even though the natural world is flawed, it still is amazing and breathtaking to see at times. God uses the brokenness of this world to help us look for something better, and in the process, we can learn to be graceful, merciful, and forgiving of others, especially when we honestly recognize our own brokenness as well!
One of the great things about a jigsaw puzzle is that it comes with a picture of what it’s supposed to look like!
If you just fit the right pieces together, the picture takes shape and looks perfect. You may have a desired picture of what you want your life to look like, but because of sin, it’s never going to perfectly come together like you may wish for! But God has promised us that if we trust his bigger plan for our lives, the disappointments of this life are not the final result. He has a bigger and better plan than we can ever envision! In Isaiah 55:6,8-9, God says through Isaiah “Seek the Lord will he may be found; call upon him while is near… For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
What great news for us all! Personally, my life has been turned upside down in the last few years. I have no idea how all the “pieces” are going to fit together, but I can trust God that he ALREADY knows my future and has better plans for me than I can even imagine!
I’ve been reading through Isaiah lately, and it’s an amazing book! God not only tells Isaiah to tell the nation of Israel that they will be punished for their disobedience and will be taken into captivity by Babylon, but he promises in future generations that he will forgive them and bring them back to their home and will bless them again! Not only that, but he gives them EVIDENCE of what he is going to do in the future! In chapter 41, Isaiah tells the people that after they are taken away into captivity by Babylon, God is going to rescue them and bring them back home. Isaiah says that 150 years in the future, God will raise up a King named Cyrus in Persia that will defeat Babylon and will let them return home, with money and materials to rebuild. And it happens exactly that way in the future! PLUS, Isaiah amazingly is given many prophecies about the coming of Jesus, telling exactly what he would be like ands how it would happen, 700 years before Jesus was even born!
Another good thing about a jigsaw puzzle is that is has an outer edge, a boundary, that you can piece together before you try to get all the inner pieces figured out!
Often life seems random and uncertain, and we wish we had some boundaries or guidelines to keep us on the right track! In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus talks about all the common worries we have in life, and tells us rather than worry about these common things, he says “Seek first his Kingdom and is righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”.
My life is uncertain right now, and yours may be also, but Jesus tells us when we focus on Him first, and desire to live a life in his Kingdom now and forever, he will give us all we need and direct us in the right steps to move forward into his plans for our future! Not only that, he offers us his help and rest as we face the struggle in life:
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
FINALLY, AS MUCH AS WE MAY LOVE OUR FLAWED LIFE AND WORLD, DEEP DOWN, WE ALL LONG FOR SOMETHING WE KNOW IS FAR BETTER! WE LONG TO SEE THE “PUZZLE” OF OUR LIFE PUT TOGETHER, WHOLE AND COMPLETE AND WONDERFUL!
King Solomon, probably the wisest ruler who ever lived, said:
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.– Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
No matter whether you believe in God or not, deep down, everybody knows that life can and should be better than this, and they wish for a life without the effects of sin. The concept of “eternity” is not just about unending time, but more so an amazing new way of life that we were created for, before sin ruined it all for us! Truly, the “best is yet to come” for those who trust in Jesus to not only save them from sin, but also lead and direct their lives as everlasting Lord!
Not only does Jesus help us get through this present world, broken by sin, but he promised to restore the world to its original state before sin, and for those who trust their lives to him, he will give us new bodies and sinless hearts to live in his new Kingdom forever! The ending of the book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of just how amazing this promised new future will look:
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. Revelation 21:1-7 (NIV)
Right now, my life is a little bit uncertain, and I’m not quite sure how my future may look. Maybe you feel that way at times as well!
But, I’m not worried about it! God has provided everything I need and more to this point, and I know he has my back and he has my future! And even better, he already knows what it will look like and I can trust him to put the pieces together perfectly!
I hope you will trust Jesus with the pieces of your life today, and know his peace and joy as well!
I close with a prayer for all of us from Ephesians:
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. – Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV)