An Incomplete Puzzle

Did you love school growing up? I was one of those kids who couldn’t get enough of classes, and had to be forced to stay home when sick. I also looked the egghead part. Thick coke-bottle lensed glasses, gawky, and because of circumstances beyond my control, not dressed in the current styles. I was the nerdiest of the nerds and loved to learn. Still do, and my favorite subject is God.

I want to know everything about the Creator, creation and his son, Jesus. From beginning to end, top to bottom. I am curious, and I can’t get enough of it.

But the Bible says during our time on earth, God’s not going to give us the complete picture, just pieces. Our minds probably aren’t capable of the full download, and that drives some of us crazy. But it keeps many of us coming back to the Word to see if there’s another puzzle piece to add.

And you know what? There usually is.

1 Corinthians 13:8-12 gives us a perspective on our partial knowledge of the things of God. It begins with “Love never fails.” The Greek word used for love here is “agape,” which refers to the love of God for man. The Greek word for “fails” also means “dies” So with this insight, let’s start again.

“The love of God for man never dies (So thankful for this truth!) But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.”

God’s love for us is complete, and does not change, but as far as revelation about himself, there is more to come. He gives us nibbles to make us hungry for greater insight. Like baby birds, we open our mouths wide for daily manna. Living bread.

He also doesn’t give us the complete picture when we go through personal trials and discouraging scenarios, does he? At times, life can be downright hopeless. We want God to show us what’s on the other side of the valley, but that ominous mountain is obstructing our view.

Job understood that. He represents the epitome of human suffering, and desired the complete picture, but God didn’t reveal it to him either. His friends insisted he brought his suffering upon himself, but Job proclaimed his innocence. Even God said Job was “blameless and upright.”

So while all the suffering, God? “Why am I being treated like this?” Job seemed to infer through the pages of the Biblical book carrying his name.  “If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments,” cried Job.

Maybe you’re asking God, “Why” right now. You don’t understand and, like Job, you’re not getting a quick answer. You desire to argue your case with the Almighty.

But Job, like those of us who experience suffering, only knew in part, and that’s exactly what God finally explained to him, saying, “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? (Job 38:2)

“Words without knowledge.”

Job was complaining with his words even though he didn’t have all the knowledge. He only held some of the pieces of the puzzle in his hand. The big picture was not in his grasp, and he was questioning the situation, rather than trusting Almighty God, who had the knowledge. He knew it all and saw it all, during Job’s trial.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? God asked. Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”

God created the million-piece life puzzle, and we had nothing to do with it.

If we are truly surrendered to God through Christ, we have to trust that whatever we’re going through, he will bring us through it, and he will use it for his glory. His ways are not our ways, and he is far greater than Job or we ever imagined. Job’s perspective was coming from an incomplete puzzle.

Here’s the hope. One day soon, we won’t have to ask any more questions.

We’ll know why we were sick.

We’ll know why we lost that job.

We’ll know why our loved one died too young.

We’ll finally get it, because there won’t be any pieces missing. Just as God fully knows us, we will fully know him, and we will be in awe of the Holy God whose love for us is eternally complete.

It will be a dream come true for a girl who has a need to know, and desires all the answers. And when that day comes, our lives, at long last, will be perfect and the puzzle will be complete. (LBW)