Isaiah 55: 8-9 ““For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

One of my favorite wintertime activities is doing puzzles. I like the 1,500-2,000 piece puzzles – not overly easy, but still fun. I separate the edge pieces first and then find a bunch of unused plastic containers to sort similarly colored pieces into. The puzzle pieces don’t make a lot of sense in the beginning. Pieces everywhere and it feels a bit overwhelming the first few days. As I keep working on it though, pieces come together and things do eventually start to make sense.

How often is life like puzzle pieces? All we can see are the scattered pieces that don’t seem to make much sense to us – why is this happening now? What did that conversation mean? How did that situation even arise? Why am I being blessed in this way? Why isn’t God showing up right now?

The above passage is one of my favorites to draw comfort from. When it feels like life’s puzzle pieces are jumbled, I’m grateful that I’m not the puzzle designer. God is the one who sees the big picture and knows exactly how all of those pieces will come together. And the good news is that it’s not even about me – all of the pieces are designed by God and for His glory.

If life’s puzzle pieces aren’t making a lot of sense to you right now, take a second read of the passage above. Thanks be to God that His ways are not our way and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Photo credit: Ross Sneddon via Unsplash.com