Gò0dNews for Family
The Ultimate Puzzle Master ometimes, I imagine God looking down while putting together a giant puzzle. When my son was three, we called him the Puzzle Master. For his age, he could quickly put difficult ones together. He recently got married and moved 1,084 miles away from home. While driving the other day, I thought of how God had pieced so many things together in my son’s life to get him to this point. For instance, my son was once painfully shy. In twenty years of teaching, I have never had a student that quiet. One Sunday, our former pastor shared that he too was shy and had difficulty speaking in front of others, but over time God granted him the ability. My son felt the calling to be a youth minister. Hearing how the pastor had overcome his obstacle helped encourage my son to pursue his goal. In past summers, my son worked for a landscaping company and did not like it. He is not a manual laborer. When he graduated from a Bible college, he applied at several churches to no avail. So, he continued working in scalding 95-degree weather, and other times freezing temperatures. But he made good money and knew it was wise to stay and save. When it was time to get engaged, married and move away, he was financially prepared. God brought him to a girl with the same love for children and ministry. Her father will be pastoring at an inner-city church, giving them the opportunity to work with the youth. My son is a sports enthusiast, with his favorite sport being basketball. He played from the age of five all
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the way through college. This love will now be used at the church gym—sharing God with inner-city youth. As a mom, watching the pieces of his life be put into place by God was sometimes difficult. I never imagined he would move so far away, but we must trust God as He is the Puzzle Master. When I taught kindergarten, I would see children in the puzzle center working together. Inevitably, a child or two would sneak a piece and hide it under their leg. They wanted to be the one to finish the puzzle, to be able to say “look what I did,” and to be in control. I think sometimes we are like that too. We watch God work in our lives and trust Him. But sometimes we want to keep a piece or two—we want to control a certain part of our life. Not surrendering all aspects of our lives can delay God’s plan. When I put a puzzle together, I start with all the outside pieces, forming a rectangle, and then work my way in. I have noticed that other people find pieces that look similar and put them together. They end up with several small patches and then join them. There is no wrong way to put a puzzle together. But as a Christian, your pieces must be put together in the order God wants and in His timing. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6). God created each of us for a purpose. He knows how the final puzzle looks and will lead us down our intended path if we will let Him. We are to put all our trust into God’s hands, for He is the ultimate Puzzle Master of our lives.
About The Author
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by Donna Tumlin
Donna Tumlin is the mother of three grown children and lives in Rome, Georgia. She is a teacher and she is a member of First Baptist Church of Lindale. She is also the co-author of a Christian blog Smorgasbord of Sisterhood, which she writes with her cousin.
