Last week we were out of town for several days. The puzzle work had to rest for a while. Yesterday was Sunday and that's a busy day for us. This evening, I started working on the puzzle for the first time in several days. Laura saw me and she pitched in to help. Then Joel got excited about it and started helping and Hannah Grace got in the action before we were done. It was a fun evening and we felt a sense of family accomplishment that we got our puzzle finished.
Joel said it was fun to do and he thinks it looks awesome. Hannah Grace said it was a lot of fun. Laura said she felt a sense of accomplishment. I'm relieved. That unfinished puzzle was starting to bug me a bit. It was fun to start, but it does feel even better to finish. I did not take my pocket knife to even one piece. It was tempting a few times to trim a piece or two so they would fit. Several times I was convinced that a piece was missing because I could not find the one I was looking for. Joel said a piece he was looking for was missing and he started looking and indeed it was. He found it under a cactus we have on our table. All the ones I thought were missing were eventually found in the pile. I have a suspicion that Laura may have put her hand over a couple while I was looking.
Putting the puzzle together reminded me that I need to trust God when life doesn't make sense to me. I only have a few pieces of the puzzle of life. God has all the pieces and knows exactly where each piece goes. It would be very difficult to take 3 pieces of a 500 piece puzzle and know what the puzzle looks like or where the pieces would go. I live in a very small piece of the world. I know very few of the 7 billion plus people that live on this planet. I know nothing of the future and not much of the past. Yet, there are times when I question God's wisdom and wonder why certain things happen the way they do. It does not take me long in a children's hospital to wonder why these children have to suffer and why God does not do more to help. Of course, I have many other things that are mysteries to me that I would love to know the answers to. Yet, I trust that God has the answers. One day, He will allow those who follow Him to see the completed picture and I believe we will say that God knew best and did best.
One of the men that seemed to grab this truth and really hold on to it was George Mueller. When his wife died, Mueller preached her funeral. I have no desire to follow him in those footsteps. In the funeral sermon itself, Mueller took as a text Psalm 119:68, “Thou art good and doest good.” He divided it like this: "The Lord was good and did good: first, in giving her to me; second in so long leaving her to me; and third, in taking her from me."
Mueller wrote, "What I have to do, as His child, is to be satisfied with what my Father does, that I may glorify Him. I was satisfied with God.”
I have a lot to learn from Mr. Mueller.
Glad that God knows what He is doing in the abundant life
Barry
3 things I thank God for today
1. His wisdom
2. George Mueller's life and biography
3. Chairs
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