Puzzles
In the wee small hours when I was lying awake listening hard to Victoria struggling to breath I formed a really profound set of thoughts on the subject of puzzles - the jigsaw sort. By this stage in the day, the details are mostly forgotten. They were along the lines of the fact that as one goes through life one catches glimpses of ideas which one would like to apprehend and incorporate (like the annoying puzzle piece which lies on the table outside of the puzzle border, unplaced). Things like 'how can one REALIZE the concept of it being more blessed to give that to recieve' : 'how can I esteem my neighbour higher than myself - esp. when he might be a reprobate' : 'how do I deal with bad things which happen, where I am able to identify the CAUSER of the unpleasantness'. It was on this latter sticky area I have now got some useful light. This particular 'puzzle piece' is now installed in that work-under-constuction which is my life. It's like this; I have to practice differentiating between the BRINGER and the SENDER. This bit of light came through 'my life for yours' (douglas wilson) which I am reading aloud (sporadically) to my children as part of schoolwork. Later on the very same day as I read this I put on (only because I couldn't find the Schaeffer CD I really planned to listen to) a disk with some recent doug wilson sermons. The subject was Ezra - and the grief which Tattenai gave regarding the temple work in Jerusalem. Tattenai was the one who brought the trouble, GOD (as Ezra well knew) was the one who sent it. The danger is that if we stop part way through the story (of ours or anyone else's life) we might get a warped idea of what is really going on - only in the light of eternity will it all make sense but if the story keeps on winding forward things often come out surprisingly differently to how we might imagine. I think of Joseph in the cistern, Haman and his gallows, Judas sitting to eat with Jesus, Esther sent by Mordecai to be 'sampled' by the king.... If we know we are in the Lord's way, we know that He will work for us to bring about everything in the way he has planned.

Another point Wilson brought out (in a later sermon I was listening to today) is that when Ezra had to get some good men, he didn't ask for volunteers. The vast majority of mankind thinks they are OK, have a valid and unique opinion which YOU ought to benefit from. The fact is that those who don't spend time studying the word of God and applying the word of God to themselves first, don't have any valid opinion worth listening to - but they don't recognise it. That knowledge should be enough to hush my mouth....

Lucy was roped in to sorting a box of assorted games in which she found a puzzle - she pointed out that the only purpose of having this puzzle in the house seemed to be that we could, annually, assemble it to see if all the pieces were there - this time they weren't so it has gone in the fire. Maybe the time has come to ditch even the healthy puzzles, then again, it might be something which Victoria will enjoy doing in the future...