Things are looking up

Things have been a little weary lately, and the blog has suffered a bit. Last week I had three different doctors' appointments, then a huge event at church, which I felt I was only able to give about a third of what I normally do because of some physical things I am experiencing, and then some other situations that took me by surprise. It's been a bit of a bummer and the writer's block set in.

While preparing for the church event I was out in Indio, quite a drive for me, but a gorgeous day. The weather in Indio was 81 that day, not a cloud in the sky. I was on a mission to gather a couple of date bearing branches and a few palm fronds. Robyn hooked me up with the plant manager at a huge farm and after a few minutes of catching up we loaded the back of my car with enormous branches heavy with dates. After that our generous benefactor asked us to follow him out to the fields where he stood knee high in the flooded grove and carefully and skillfully cut perfect young palm fronds from the base of the trees with a machete. The fronds, although baby leaves from the base of the tree, were already longer and wider than my car, so he made careful measurements and re-cut the fronds to fit in the back. He stacked my car full and off we rode with our sweet treasure.

I am so impressed with this man's kindness. We asked, he gave willingly. He wanted us to have the best he had so he stood in water to deliver it and would not allow us to even think about repayment. He shared a few humorous stories, looked up to the sky with praise for the beauty where he worked, and asked for us to return and visit again. His additions to our event made an impact.

Lately I have heard almost no good news, but after meeting this good man, I just had to start looking up. Life can be a bummer. Things happen to us that we cannot control. But some things we can. It's puzzling.

God knows what the photo on our life's puzzle looks like. He has put the edges on and is helping us fill in the middle. Sometimes we get fixated on one piece, sure that it fits. We pick it up stroke the waxy top with our thumb, look for the colour details in the tiny piece, finger the rounded edges, let the flat and square edge poke into our skin; we know just where to place it. We place it down in the space and it resists. We pick it up, examine it again, adjust our aim and place it again, this time with a bit more force. We know it will fit, perhaps there is a tab of cardboard on the piece that has come out of align, tap it in, push it in, then pull it out in frustration. We glare. We check the puzzle before us, some pieces already in place forming a picture we like and then focus again on the one piece in our hand. We turn it and turn it, and each time we think it should fit -it just doesn't. We put it on the table with a disagreeable thud. We walk away for a minute, grab a glass of milk maybe, sit down and convince our self, again, that piece should fit in the space we provide. But it doesn't and it won't and all the pushing will just weaken the piece or actually bend one of the tabs...but it will not fit into a place it does not belong.

Eventually we will finally give up our design and go with the one on the box. The picture God has designed for us. Putting down the piece we begin to search for another one with similar colours and shapes but something in that new piece will be different and just like that it will go smoothly into place and add another dimension to our puzzle.

So it is. Heavenly Father knows our life, he designed it. He knows each piece. Sometimes we think we know where each piece fits, we try to force them in, and we waste a lot of time being forceful with things that don't fit. We get mad when we make a wrong choice, we sometimes blame the piece in our hand rather than the hand that holds it. Every piece of the puzzle will fit, its just a matter of where. Perhaps our Heavenly Father needs us to pick up each piece in His order rather than our order. Maybe we need to fill in the sky before we can fill in the scenery, or perhaps in our particular puzzle we need to fill in the center and work out to the edge. Only God knows which piece will fit first time, but like I said, each piece will fit. Maybe in our prayers for Divine help we need to ask what God wants us to feel instead of asking Him to remove our feeling. Maybe we need to ask Him to guide us to what He needs us to do rather than to what we are hoping for. Maybe, as I was counseled just a few days ago, we need to just focus on thanks, prayer full of nothing but thanksgiving, and forget the "needs" we have. Perhaps in the thanksgiving we can find it is that we really need, really desire.

All things we experience in life are meant to be for our good, even the difficult things. Heavenly Father has a purpose for each of us. All of the pieces in our life will end up making a great picture, but we need to place them all. If we leave out the pieces we think don't fit, we'll end up with a picture that is not complete. Heavenly Father is asking me to place a different piece into my puzzle, a different piece than I want to place right now. He knows my picture, He knows which piece to set so that my puzzle will be put together more effectively. So, now, I am trying to look up as I work my puzzle. I will try to give more thanks for the beautiful picture I have been given and I will try to fit the piece He has given me so that I can someday be picture perfect.