My preschoolers are really bad at putting together puzzles. Ironically, so is the teacher I’m working with. They can’t seem to comprehend that you can flip the pieces around to make them fit. They’ll try to mash different pieces that don’t even come close to matching together. They’ll try one piece and then cast it away if it doesn’t work the first time. Sometimes, they’ll get so aggravated with the puzzle that they abandon it all together, or my personal favorite, they’ll throw all of the pieces up in the air, which makes a tremendous mess.
I couldn’t help but think of the way the Lord probably looks at me at times. I’ve tried over and over again to put the puzzle pieces of my life together. I’ve been fed up with guessing and trying and I’ve abandoned the puzzle and thrown my hands up and walked away. I’ve tried to mash pieces together out of order or from completely different puzzles. I’ve made my own plans. Or tried to combine mine with the Lord’s. I’ve tried to run hard and fast away from the plans that he had for me. And I’ve learned the hard way that His ways are higher than my own and that life will go much smoother if I’ll just surrender all of my plans, ambitions and dreams to him. And i think for me, this is never just a lesson learned. It’s a lesson that he has to teach me over and over again, through big ways and small. For me, it’ll probably be a lifelong lesson.
And that’s where I am right now. Always learning that I’m not very good at putting together the puzzle of my life and I should leave that to the creator of the universe. And constantly reminding myself just to sit back and let him have the reins. I have 3 weeks left in India. 22 days. And I’m going home with thoughts of finding a job quickly & planning a wedding in less than 3 months, but I know that the Lord has proven his faithfulness through and through (and I have the best support system, hands down.) So I’m praying, trusting and believing.
“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.” Isaiah 30:1-2
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
