I
thought this was a well- worn message. Everyone knows that I love my jig saws.
I usually have one on the go.
I
realised that the new one I had chosen was exceptionally difficult, but I am a
veteran. It would not master me. However, the more I struggled, the more I felt
God was speaking to me through my struggle.
I
have always found jigsaws to be therapeutic; they remind me that however
jumbled the pieces may be, we know that there is a big picture and that there
is the mind of the artist behind it all. Life is like that, isn’t it? Often
things seem to be going wrong, but one day we will see these incidents are part
of God’s big picture.
With
jigsaws, some people insist that you must always begin with the frame, but
sometimes I find it impossible to fit together the border, and if you make a
mistake there, you are never going to get the rest of the picture to fit. I
always say, begin with something you recognise.
I
hope I never forget the lessons I learned from this wonderful gospel jigsaw I
was loaned. The outline was of a dove, including the feathers of its wings, but
within this border were so many individual pictures telling the Gospel story.
There was no way you could begin with the outline.
And
in the picture of my life, I have learned to begin with the Cross, and very
often, I need to go back to it again.
I
came into the Christian life through a movement that taught us so much about
the Bible. We thought we had the answer for everything, but I had never been
taught that all important truth that Jesus Christ had died for my sins. We had
blamed it all on Adam.
Thank
God, I eventually came to understand that God loved me so much that, if no one
else had needed salvation, He would have been willing to send Jesus to die on
the cross for me. I had been the lost
sheep, going my own way, but now, trusting in Jesus, I had a new life. I was
learning to live the life of an overcomer.
But now I no longer felt I had all the answers
as I had once thought. There was, and still is, so much I do not understand,
but I was told, When you can’t understand, just go back to the cross. Look up
into the face of the one who hung there for you and know that though you do not
understand, you can trust him.
And
as I plod on, or even struggle, with my jigsaws, I am reminded that, as in
life, I can trust the artist and know that there is a big picture.
So I
pressed on with this jigsaw. I found some bright greens and eventually pieced a
beautiful lady, and then brown pieces that belonged to her very smart husband.
Pieces of red turned out to be an old fashioned open topped car. Now surely I
could start on the paving stones. I struggled with this until at last it was
almost complete. Almost – but I had an odd piece over, which meant something
was in the wrong place.
I
had lost my joy in this jig-saw. It was too hard. I would give up. But, why
this strange depression? After all, it
was only a hobby.
I
turned the board upside down, and started on the sky line. I had no trouble with the dome of St. Paul’s. I was
enjoying it now,until once again I was stuck. Again, I wanted to give up, but I
had a nagging feeling that God wanted to speak to me through this.
I
remember the words of a friend, who told me emphatically, ‘There is only one
thing that can rob us of our joy, and that is sin.’
Well,
I had not sinned as far as my jigsaw was concerned, but I must have got some
pieces in the wrong place.
Somehow
I felt this was a spiritual exercise as I searched for the culprits. I was praying David’s prayer;
‘Search
me, O Lord ….see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way
everlasting.’
Prayerfully
now, I turned back to the pavement. Sure enough, I found that missing piece,
lurking in the wrong corner. It had looked a pretty good fit, but was not quite
right. I hope I am learning the lesson, that it is easy to convince ourselves
that something is right and yet it is not God’s best for us. But what about
those gaps in the roof tops? My lovely friend who cleans for me found them
under the table. With a little help from my friends, my picture was at last
complete.
Spiritual
lessons may not be so easy, but we know that one day we will understand how God
has been making all things to work together for good in our lives and we will
see the picture of our lives as God has planned for it to be seen, to display
his glory.
There
is a verse that says that we are God’s workmanship, his poem – and for us
jigsaw addicts, maybe we could add, his jigsaw.
