Monday, February 25, 2013


Pieces




Pieces. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Have you ever been putting together a really big jigsaw puzzle? You know, the ones with thousands of tiny pieces, each one so similar to the next that it is almost impossible to figure out what goes where. Maybe you've put a particular jigsaw puzzle together time after time, year after year....so many times that you no longer need to look at the picture on the box, because you know instinctively where each piece goes.

Now, imagine you are sitting down at a table to work this particular jigsaw puzzle for the umpteenth time. Your little girl comes to sit down next to you and says, "Mommy, can I help?" Now, you know this puzzle is too hard for her, especially because you've lost the box it came in and don't even have a picture of what it is supposed to look like. But you take her by the hand, sit her down with you, and say, "Sure, honey. Let's do this together." You give her about 10 or 12 pieces that you know will work to make a part of the picture, a small piece of the puzzle. She sits and works for a while, trying pieces first here, then there. She tries to put them in the wrong places at times, and you guide her hand. Then, after a time…voila! "I did it, Mommy!" She exclaims.

This goes on for a while, you giving her a few pieces to work on, guiding her, helping her, and her completing her portions bit by bit. Finally, in frustration and impatience, she says, "I don't want any help. I can do it just like you!" She takes all of the remaining pieces (not just ones you have given her) and tries to put something…anything together. She fits and tries and arranges and rearranges. Nothing. She gets more frustrated and annoyed, and tries some more. Not one piece goes together. Finally, she slings the pieces off the table, and exclaims, "I can't do it!", lies her head down on the table and cries. You say to her, "I know you can't do it by yourself. You're not ready for that. You need to let me guide you bit by bit, little by little, to put things together, because I know where everything needs to go to work out just right. You can't do it alone. But you can do it with me."

Now, I imagine me as that little girl, with God as the Ultimate Puzzle Master. Sometimes I try to do things on my own, thinking I know the best places for everything to fit. I try to fit things in here and there, turn it around, try again. But I don't get anywhere. Finally, I cry out to God, "I can't do it!" It's then He says to me, "I know you can't do it alone. You don't know what this is going to look like when it's finished. Only I know that. But you can do it with Me. I'll just give you a few things at a time that I know you can handle, and eventually, we'll get the whole picture finished. You and Me…together."

I want God to take all my pieces, jagged and torn, broken and ruined, and put them together into a picture, a mosaic, that will bring Him glory and honor.

May your day be blessed and your heart be happy,

-Andrea

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

"What you see is what you get." 

Or is it? In these technology bombarded times we live in, what we see is sometimes far from the truth. Movies, televison, magazines, internet images...they are all cropped and enhanced, changed and rearranged. It seems nothing is worth posting unless it fits the image of "perfect" that Hollywood has defined...but that is a blog for another time..

I got to thinking about the photoshopped images we see, and it occurred to me...am I a"photoshopped" Christian? Do I sometimes put the image out there that is untarnsihed, more vivid than actuality, more glowing than true? Do I put on a face for others to see  that is unlike that God sees? God isn't fooled by "photoshopped" images. He upholds our lives to the mirror of His word to see how we reflect. I want what God sees to be what the world sees too. I don't want to just APPEAR to be a Christian...I want to truly be one, from the depths of my very being. In today's world, it seems a lot of people are claiming to be Christians, but I'm afraid they are photoshopped. The image they send  out doesn't always "jive" with the way they are truly living their  lives. I don't  want to be that way. I want to be a true image. I have flaws...I'm not perfect. I get angry and sad, jealous and rude. I am not always happy with what I see, but I can only begin to work on changing the reflection in the mirror if I am honest about what I am seeing. I don't want it to be "touched up". I want it  to be changed....to be created in the image of God...to reflect Him.

May your day be joyous and your heart be happy!

-Andrea