My mom likes to put challenging 1,000 piece puzzles together. When she dumps a box out I can’t help but think it will never come together; it’s just a jumbled mess that doesn’t look like anything promising. And yet each time I check in, it’s coming together. She had one with old-fashioned Christmas ornaments all hanging on blue beads. Another one was a solid picture of sprinkled and frosted doughnuts which, quite honestly, just made me hungry. A recent puzzle was shelves of books and their many titles. With patience, little by little, a picture begins to form. It doesn’t happen overnight and mom has to keep working at it, but each time the final picture eventually comes together.
Trust the Timing
Unfortunately, sometimes life can be a complicated puzzle. It just seems like a bunch of events that produce nothing but problems and chaos. But take heart, God is working in your life right now to bring it all together. From Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” God had you on His radar for a long time. Psalm 139:16-17, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me God! They cannot be numbered!” Grab ahold of this thought-you are always on God’s mind. He’s looking at all the seemingly impossible parts of your life and He’s fitting them together to create something beautiful. So stay steadfast and keep watching, because you can be sure, it’s coming together.
Things to do today:
- Trust in God’s perfect timing.
- Read a similar blog called ‘Timing is Everything’ and listen to the song, ‘Glorious Unfolding.’
It’s easy for me to look back on my year and see the areas where I could have done better. If I spent more time working out I could’ve lost the extra weight I’ve been carrying around. Also, it’s a lot easier to write a book if I actually sit down at a computer to get my thoughts in order. The list goes on and on. I think hockey great Wayne Gretzky got it right when he said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” In reflection, I can see the places where I could have done things differently.
Fall is one of my favorite seasons. There’s something about the vibrant colors that appeals to me. Some years fall sneaks in quietly, and other years it seems to arrive overnight. I call that a ‘suddenly’. That’s what happened with a group of mums I picked up for my church. They gave me a sneak-peek of their colors: speckled white, dappled orange, and dotted red. But guess what? A few days ago when I watered them, I saw that everything changed. The orange mums were loaded with flowers, the white ones were crammed with blossums, and the red mums were overflowing with crimson buds. I thought it would be a gradual process, but overnight the mums were fully dressed. A suddenly took place.
At the Victorian Bed and Breakfast where I work, a festive wedding shower was scheduled. There were so many things to do to get ready for this event! We worked on the landscaping beds and the flower baskets, we swept and dusted the great room, the massive deck was power-washed, the tables were set, and the lunch was prepared. At the scheduled time, the happy guests came in carrying their colorful presents. There was only one problem: the bride-to-be wasn’t there. She was stuck in California, still trying to catch a plane to Ohio. Ever have one of THOSE days?
On his visits to my house, my nephew’s favorite thing to do is to climb the tree in my front yard. The problem is, he’s only 4, so reaching even the bottom branch is impossible. Even with no chance of success, he keeps trying to climb it. Benjamin reaches as high as he can, he stands on tiptoes, and he even tries to climb the trunk. Eventually, he asks me to lift him up. Then he immediately reaches for a higher branch and takes those little tennies and steps onto the lowest branch. His face instantly lights up like he’s standing on top of the world. I like that I get to be a part of his success, and that he asked for my help. It makes my day to see him so happy.
Even with obstacles, we need to keep going. I learned this one summer when my friends and I hiked the Billy Goat Trail in Maryland on what had to be the hottest day of the year. The trail itself offered its share of challenges with much of it covered in rocky terrain. We climbed over, then slid down, giant boulders on a regular basis. The sun beat on our backs as the flowing waters of the Potomac River tempted us from far below. One of the biggest challenges was scaling a steep cliff face along the Potomac’s Mather Gorge. Although we consumed water regularly, the weight of it in our packs seemed to get heavier as the day wore on. Despite the deterrents that day, I’m happy to report we kept going and made it to the trail’s end.