The Final Puzzle
This past Sunday, we were treated at Antioch Christian Church to a message by Steve Gregory. I always enjoy Steve’s messages. His casual style and friendly manner make him enjoyable, and the fact that I know him personally to be a nice guy helps, too. There was something about his message that I could not quite grasp; something that I couldn’t quite get my mind around. I finally figured it out after much contemplation which, by the way, is also the mark of a good sermon. The listener is left thinking.
Steve’s message was about the puzzle that is our lives and that we are the one’s who choose what piece of the puzzle Jesus gets to be. He used several examples of how this might be done. I mean no criticism of Steve’s message, but he never really hit the topic in a way that made sense to me. That may not be entirely accurate. He DID make sense, but I felt there was something still to be said; some completion.
As Steve spoke, I put my life into the example he was using. I’ve built my life into many puzzles over many years, each one coming up short and incomplete. The life I have built today, which I desperately hope is the final puzzle, is strong, stable, and feels infinitely durable. A wonderful home life surrounds me, filled with love, laughter, compassion, understanding and forgiveness. How did I do it this time? What worked and why? The answer was all around me.
I’ve assembled the pieces of my life many times, only to swipe them from the table in frustration. Jesus was not even a piece at all in the first attempt. After that failure was swept from the table, I figured he should be every piece. That was no good either, so the table was cleaned again. Then, I stumbled upon a puzzle structure wherein I could attach the things of my life to Jesus that I wanted to, all the while keeping those “private” parts of my life from Him. That particular puzzle lasted longer than previous versions, but still wouldn’t fit together totally and I had to swipe it from the table again. Drowning, I pulled myself into one final puzzle building attempt. This one worked! I didn’t really get why until Steve’s message on Sunday.
It occurred to me on the way home and I said it out loud, “Jesus was a carpenter.”
That’s it! I thought to myself. We’re all desperately trying to build our puzzles, moving pieces around the table with great effort, wondering where Jesus fits in, and the answer is right below us.
Jesus IS the table. The table is the only piece of any puzzle that touches all the other pieces. When we build our puzzle using the human things of our life like money, love, friendship, sex, career, children, etc. and try to put that puzzle on a foundation of human origin, it will always crumble under the weight. When we accept the human gifts of our lives and build that puzzle on the foundation table that is Jesus Christ, it will stand strong, never failing.
Jesus after all, was a carpenter. He knows a few things about tables.
