s your life like a Puzzle?

 

The Puzzle and Life

 

Is your life like a Puzzle?

 

My brother and his wife, Chris, gave Jan and me a puzzle of the manger setting for Christmas, and Fred's last word as they left was you need to finish this by Christmas.  That gave us two days, and guess what, it's still not finished.

 

But it been a big learning experience, in that Jan likes to work the puzzle before we get the outer border finished.  Shortcuts in our lives, like trying to work outside of God’s framework, will always end up in a redo.  

 

What puzzle have open my eyes to is the gaps in one life, the pieces must fit perfectly, the slight gap and your life, like the puzzle, will not fit. Since Jan and I have been married for over 60 years, we had many gaps, and most were mine.  I was 27 years old when I was confronted by men who had a personal relationship with Christ; I had a Baptist or religious understanding of Christ.  So, in a hotel room in Victoria, Texas, I ask Jesus to forgive my many sins and take over the management of my life.  And now the piece began to come together.  No, I had learn how to get my needs met outside of  Christ for 27 years, and it has been a battle allowing Him to make the pieces fit without the gaps.

 

As I grew in my faith, I began to study the Scripture, and I read in Galatians 5:22-23, these words, “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

 

I can testify before God and man that my wife is the love of my life, but for years, I had men who loved me enough to tell me the truth. Bob, you are too harsh with Jan; you need to show more kindness.  Have the pieces of my life at age 84, all fit in the puzzle. No, it seems God is showing me that I must allow him to teach me patience and self-control.

 

This thought came into my mind: no one wants to use an architect who did not give them a sound foundation to build on.  I can testify that God, your Creator and Redeemer, is the perfect architect.

 

 

I woke up about 1:30 this morning, realizing I had not given Jan her new medication.  As I lay there, after doing so, I began thinking on the subject of how, if you wanted your life to fit together, like the puzzle we are about to complete, it would require you to allow the Lord who loves you more than you will ever grasp to guide you.  I lay there until 3:05, and had asked the Lord to let me write on this tomorrow, but as my friend Forrest told me many years ago, obedience brings blessing, and so I went ahead and wrote this paper.

 

It has not been the best time for our family. We lost our sister. My brother-in-law and Doris's two girls exhibit love in an amazing way for Doris.  One of Joe's amazing gifts from God was the ability to fix things and solve problems; it was very hard for him not to fix Doris.  Jan and I both have come down with a bad cough, and mine has settled into my chest, and I was hoping to sleep.  As I lay in bed, all kinds of thoughts filled my mind, none of which were areas that the pieces were not in the rearview mirror of my life, like language, drinking, sex desire, and just wanting to be the center of my small world.  As always, when I began to write, the Spirit of God took my mind not to others but to myself.  I have a long way to go to be Christ-like in the area of patience and self-control; it only takes getting in my car to make that become a reality.

 

From our Back Porch,

Bob Rice