Perplexed Puzzling Perspective
As I see my friend diligently working on putting together a puzzle, I become perplexed. I am watching her "be there w/us" yet doing her own thing....faithfully, consistently and quite studiously. When we are together you can find her there 90% of the time over sitting at that table alone just working away at it...occasionally someone stops by her "work area" and observes, from time to time some may even contribute to the "puzzling piecing." I, on the other hand, won't go near the area. I'm not intimidated by the zany mix-match pieces yet there is something that does puzzle me about the scenario. I keep thinking about it. I want to kick over the table. I want to mess it up, yet I want to go and get it together so it's done.
Inside I chuckle for the way I feel and then I talk it over with a sweet friend. I explain that "it's bothering me that this puzzle is being done" and I express my weird emotions that are stirring up within me. I am fully convinced that I am observing this "project" for God's own good and can't quite place why. My sweet friend (did i also mention she's quite quippy?) deplores that "the puzzle has nothing to do with you, it's a yearly tradition but go ahead and think what I want." Knowing me quite well....I will for I am fully convinced there is "something there."
A few days later, I'm chatting with another "blessed gift of friendship" and I ask her if she wants to hear something "silly about the puzzle." She sits silently for a moment and then responds "Yes. Yes I do because I have to tell you about my experience and thoughts on how the puzzle is affecting me." We laugh about our stories and it turns out after all, "THERE IS something about the puzzle!" LOL.
This is what I think is going on for me w/God. As I watch my friend put together this "art" I picture her as God putting all the pieces together slowly, effortlessly, faithfully and diligently in my life (the work of art). Me on the other hand wants to give up and destroy His work (just like my feelings about the puzzle). I also want to "hurry and get it done so I can see the completed work (hmmm....just like the feelings I have as I go thru situations--I want them over asap!). I tend to want to quit and I tend to want to rush.
Watching my friend labor at this task has reminded me that it's all in my perspective. I can sit back and enjoy the tranquility and peace that comes from knowing that "the puzzle will get pieced together" just as "God's Will will be done in my life" or I can kick and scream and cause unrest within myself as the "piecing and putting-together-process" takes place. Either way, both "works of art" will get completed! I just need to change my perplexed puzzling perspective and enjoy the process! :-)
