Little Things & Puzzle Pieces

Today is exactly what I expected from the Seattle weather. It is a little dreary and cold, but not freezing. Normally I find these conditions less than appealing, but given the South’s complete lack of real weather the last six months, I am enjoying it to the full extent possible (without going outside and getting cold of course)!

Things are going well. I so much appreciate all of you checking in on me these last few days. I finished unpacking today and I feel pretty settled into the place. A special thanks to Toni and Juan for making me feel so at home.

It is times like these, times of transition, that I find myself looking back on my life. There have been times in my life that the logic of God’s involvement was completely veiled from my view. While this is no so unlike those times, there is also an unfamiliar glimpse into the logic of it all. As I look back at how I landed here in Seattle, there are so many “little” things that had to fall into place at just the right time and in just the right way, that it leaves no doubt in my mind that God is involved. I don’t have a clue what He is doing, which is frustrating to someone as logical, scheduled, and planned as I tend to be. However, I’ve diverted from my initial topic already.

There were “big” and “little” decisions that I made before coming to Seattle. I’ve often been guilty of thinking it was the big decisions that determine where I end up, but now I wonder if those small decisions don’t affect things just as much. I don’t mean to put more pressure on decision making; rather just the opposite. I think it points toward God in a bigger way. The fact is that even the decisions we consider rather insignificant are painted into the picture that He is creating of our lives. To Him every single “little” detail is important and that makes Him a personal and involved God. That leaves me amazed. Let me see if I can explain further.

Before I left for Seattle, Shannon and I spent a day putting together one of those puzzles with such a plethora of tiny little pieces it drives you crazy – the kind where you have to hunt for all the edge pieces first (if you do it the right way). We were working on a particularly hard section of red flowers when my mind began to wander . . . what if I had put one of those flowery pieces into place and it had jumped up and said “But I don’t want to go here. I don’t understand why I go here unless you put all those other pieces around me first. How can you be so sure I fit? I don’t make sense without that piece to my left. Besides, I think I fit better as a red roof.” (Yes, I really did have this conversation in my head. Now you know that while I think a lot, it is not often deep thoughts.) Then it dawned on me. My life is not really like the entire self contained puzzle I had imagined it to be. Instead, I am only a single puzzle piece in a much bigger, grander picture that involves all of history and all of creation. When I look at it this way it takes the focus off of me and puts it firmly where it should be, on God. He is painting on the puzzle piece of my life all the “little” details and all the “big” decisions. He’s the one controlling where I am placed in relation to all of history. I’m just a small part of a much greater, much more beautiful, much more significant picture.

Each of you reading this is in some way a piece that touches mine. God has used each of you in some big or small way to impact who I am. In essence He is placing each of our pieces together to make something of beauty, and in doing so He is also creating beauty on our individual pieces, in our individual life stories. He is using all the big and little decisions to craft pieces that fit perfectly into His immense, immeasurably beautiful plan for all of creation. I don’t control how or where I fit into this grand puzzle; I only have to be obedient and agree to go into the place He has prepared just for me. Only there will I have true peace.

Sorry to ramble. I obviously had too much time on my hands today.