Some people like puzzles, specifically jigsaw puzzles where the pieces have tabs and blanks. Tabs are the little protrusions that cause a piece to connect with it's neighbor, blanks are the indentions that allow a puzzle piece to receive connection from it's neighbor. Each puzzle piece has been created with it's own structure of tabs and blanks, and it has a place to form a picture, and yet, when it's all said and done, it's just pretty cardboard.....
I believe that we Christians are God's puzzle pieces. We have tabs and blanks to, but, we are divinely inspired, so we can move around in the puzzle, and change the picture, we can also slightly modify our tabs and blanks, in order to mesh with the pieces we find ourselves with at a given time. The humans who are not born again, are like little squares, they are out there, they can lineup with each other, and it remains up to them if they want to live as a square or not. If they decide to receive Christ, they are to be gladly welcomed into the puzzle, and even if they are only a puzzle piece on one side, they are still needed, for the border, and as time passes, and they shape into a full piece, they can be replaced by a new border piece, for it is not how you look to the spectators that saves you, it is who you belong to that saves you.
Humans are meant for this relational dynamic, Satan, as the God of this world, desperately wants you to embrace hierarchy. The temptation in business is there, for, if you are the king pin, with many minions below you, you can probably pay them enough to keep them working and sit on your throne scraping the cream off for your self. In churches, and politics, there is an unholy desire for power, and control, that the devil would love to have you align with. Leaders in the kingdom, leaders as God intended are designed for the relational dynamic. In the next paragraph we will look at just a few of the ways the puzzle is divinely inspired and self sustaining by the way the Spirit of God weaves through the pieces and touches the world of squares out there. However, for now, let's say that leaders are those who are very active in the art of puzzle building, and repairing puzzle pieces. This activity gets recognized in the form of ordination in Church, which is to be a recognition of God given leadership abilities, not a king making exercise. This activity can get recognized in business by the way such people become boss, or manager etc. In business, however it is more apt that enduring success goes to the managers who are willing to work within the realties of the relational nature of human beings, weather they be squares or pieces. Squares after all, still want to be with other squares, to form a picture of their own, which basically has to do with the business they are engaged in, and the hobbies they want money for, and not so much for the kingdom of God.. The picture is not as interconnected and strong as the kingdom picture with the puzzle pieces but it is still there.
God's puzzle is ever growing, and because it is interwoven, and bound together by the Holy Spirit it is very strong, it has pictures all over, based on where you look on the puzzle, you will see a beauty that is different and yet it rhymes. A picture of a giraffe on an African plain is different from the picture of a red stag in forested Germany or a running wolf pack on the frozen tundra of Siberia, and yet the majesty is the same from the same Creator, and so it is with the Kingdom puzzle. There are those pieces who are quite rigid, and influence the pieces interlocked with them to conform, and when led by the Spirit of God, this is good, for it keeps the shape of and the color of the picture in it's area true. There are those pieces who are versatile and can plug with and adapt to almost any other piece, and when led by the Spirit, this is good to, for it keeps the relational connections strong, and it is the sum total of these connections that makes the picture strong, this connective ability moves the Kingdom from a collection of squares to a strong interwoven masterpiece. Then there are those pieces who when connected to other pieces, will help the other piece, they will clean dirt off the other piece, and repair torn tabs and blanks from abrasive relationships with other torn pieces so the colors can show better, and the piece can connect more fully within the picture, however when led by the Spirit they will not repaint the piece for the colors are given by God. There are those who will stretch the picture, they will sometimes glom onto a new picture even and stretch that, they bring new pieces, they complete the picture by bringing new pieces into the corners and they provide a lot of the border pieces. There are even those pieces who leave the edge of the border, and they start a new picture outside the puzzle, this breaks the borders, and claims a lot of new area, and a lot of new pieces for the kingdom puzzle. New pieces come in, and fill the spaces, the old border and corner pieces have grown and moved in, new pieces take their places.
Like all analogies, this one has its flaws, but, to make sense of God, and why he created man, I think it is important to embrace the beauty, the mystery, the big picture, and to accept at some level, the created cannot fully understand it's Creator. Embrace the fact that your one small colorful and very important piece, allow God to direct your movements within His puzzle, and even outside as he leads you to minister to squares, and to expand the borders. Also allow God either through you or by the other pieces He brings into your life to repair you, where you might have gotten torn or dirty.
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