No Missing Pieces

Written by Zach Roll.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” Proverbs 19:21 English Standard Version 

I got this jigsaw puzzle, of Coors Field, for Christmas. If you’ve ever done a jigsaw puzzle then I’m guessing that you have had that feeling, at least 5 times, that there are pieces of the puzzle missing. You’ve laid out all the pieces, inspecting each one carefully (or so you think), and there is no possible way that you are missing something. The puzzle makers messed up. However, the majority of the time you end up with a beautiful and complete puzzle, along with a great sense of achievement.

On rare occasions, I’m sure that there have been missing pieces in jigsaw puzzles before. After all we are not perfect. We make mistakes, and so do machines that are designed to do some jobs for us (like a jigsaw press). With a brand new year upon us, many of us have set out goals and plans for the new year, and we are determined that this year will be better than the last. We will follow through on our goals, and things will go more according to plan. More often than not it takes only a few weeks for some of those things to crumble. We tend to make excuses when these things happen. I ran out of time, something unexpected came up, or there is something missing to this puzzle. Our plans are imperfect however. We are easily distracted, we change our minds, and things can easily throw us off of our own course. We don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle.

God, however, is perfect, unchangeable, and doesn’t get distracted. His purpose will stand, nothing will get in the way of that, and we should be infinitely grateful for this. God is inviting us to trust Him with the big picture stuff. He has all the pieces and He knows exactly where they belong. Amen.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO