I sat down on the floor to help my three-year-old granddaughter put a puzzle together. This was something new to her. I gave her hints and showed her that if a piece doesn’t fit, turn it around and it might. Not having much success with this project, at one point, she stopped and said to me, “You put it together Papaw,” and with that she walked off to play with something less challenging.
Our lives are like puzzles. We work diligently to put the pieces together, and just when we think we’ve succeeded, another piece appears on the floor that doesn’t seem to fit with the rest. So, at times, we have to start all over again. At some point, we may come to my granddaughter’s level of wisdom, turn to God and say, “You put it together God.”
God is good at putting the pieces of puzzles together. We are reminded of this when we read Psalm 122 today (verses 1-5).
“I rejoiced because they said to me, ‘We will go up to the house of the Lord.’ And now we have set foot within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem , built as a city with compact unity.”
God was the architect of Jerusalem. He gave precise directions on how it was to be built. The Psalmist, having experienced this God-designed city, described it as having “compact unity.” Everything fit together perfectly. There was no wasted space, the dimensions were perfectly pleasing to the eye, and the temple was in its right place at the center of the city. God knew exactly what would work best.
Pilgrims were so elated in experiencing this work of God that they were filled with joy at the mere thought of visiting Jerusalem. They thrilled at the moment when their feet walked through the gates of the city. So dear was God’s city to the people, that in another Psalm the writer says “If I ever forget you Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill (musicians used their right hands to play stringed instruments) and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.” How much the people were in love with this city that had “compact unity.”
Do we remember that God has a plan for our lives? It is perfectly designed. When the pieces are in place, our lives have “compact unity”—there is order and peace. We will have that feeling about ourselves that the Jews did when they walked through the city gates.
This makes us wonder if we are letting God put the pieces lives together, or if we are trying to organize them according to our own, self-conceived blueprints. Are we pushing, forcing and shoving, in an attempt to get pieces to fit together, and never succeeding. Have we come to the point where we are willing to let go and say, “You put it together Father”?
Why is that we have more trust in our own thinking than we do in the ways of our Father who loves us beyond measure. Is it possible to go wrong if we let him dismantle us and start all over again, putting us together in a way that shows “compact unity.”
One thing we know about assembling the pieces of our lives. We start by making Jesus Christ the center. He is the centerpiece around which everything else is placed. As long as other “gods” are sitting on the thrones of our lives, our lives cannot fall into place. We were made for God, and no other “center” will hold up for long.
Today we ask God once more to help us put the pieces of our lives together according to his will. We go back to the basics and humbly bow before Jesus and ask him to truly be the Lord of our lives—not just a percentage, but the whole thing. When we get out of the way, God will begin to take over—working intently and patiently to form us into the people he intends us to be.
One thing we learn is that our lives are not just about us. We fit in to a picture much larger than our own lives. We are part of a living temple, the Body of Christ, which also fits together in “compact unity” (see Ephesians 4). We are living stones which when put together give fitting worship and praise to God.
“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Luke 11:28).
