Corona Devo 288

Do you realize we are all part of the puzzle?

The big Jesus-puzzle that makes life worthwhile and gives us purpose . Each of us are an integral piece. No, I am serious. Although day to day we can tend to feel dispensable or "ordinary", God disagrees, and so does the Master Plan that He set in motion before He created the world. Each of us are a critical piece of His puzzle, and together, we make up the story of Him.

But we have to play our parts. And God has given us each unique pieces of his puzzle to live out. Have you noticed that try-as-we-might, we cannot force ourselves into someone else's piece of the puzzle? We may think the grass is greener across the street, but our neighbors's piece of the puzzle is theirs, and we have one cut-out to fit us. God has a plan, and it is perfect. We are each a crucial piece of His majestic puzzle.

Sometimes it is hard to figure out how we fit into His puzzle of life. And because life is constantly in-motion and ever-changing, it is not like someone announces our role, and then we study our lines and perform when we have perfected the rehearsals. Nope--life moves, and we have to be connected to God to discern and accept our piece of the puzzle and how we fit into God's plan.

You may know your role in the puzzle of life right now, or you might be trying to force your piece into every nook and cranny--desperate to try and find a place to fit in. As Christ-followers God will place us--just as He did to countless others in His Story who came before us.

Isaiah and Micah were regular guys whose piece of the Jesus-puzzle called them to be vocal and bold as prophets and to proclaim God's Word and His ways-of-life to others. Because they obeyed God's calling on their lives and spoke out for Him, their piece-of-the-puzzle foretold of the first Christmas morn 700 years before it came to pass:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.  ~Isaiah 7:14

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”  ~Micah 5:2

 Mary was a young girl with her whole life in front of her and an upcoming marriage when she was "informed" of her piece of the Jesus puzzle.  

28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High... 34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. ~Luke 1:28, 30-32, 34-35

Mary could not have known the blessings and sorrows that would await her as the mother of Jesus, but she immediately and humbly sensed her piece in the puzzle and her obedient response to the Lord is a life-verse that we can all adopt:

"I am the Lord's servant. May it be with me as you have said." ~Luke 1:38

The story of Christmas is a puzzle. Why would a Holy and perfect God send His only Son to be born in a stinky manger, live on earth in the form of a man, and then allow Him to be crucified at the hands of people who misunderstood that He was there to save them?

Love. Grace. Mercy. These are the pieces of Jesus that hold life's-puzzle (and us) together. No matter what piece of His puzzle we represent, He fits perfectly in right next to us. He will not force-a-fit into our lives, but if we accept Him into our hearts, He puts all of the pieces of our lives together. Not immediately, not in the order we would often prefer, but Jesus is completing our life-puzzle day-by-day.

Each of us are a critical piece of His puzzle, and together, we make up the story of Him.

We each fit into it. Perfectly.

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com/