This morning I hear the sound of frustration coming from my youngest daughter’s room. I went in to see what the issue was. She was playing with Legos on the carpet, and whenever she tried to connect the pieces, some other part of her masterpiece would break. So I lay down on the floor with her and asked if I could help her out. I quickly realized her frustration as the fragile contraption fell apart on me too. Taking a second I realized the soft carpet is giving way as you push down so the rest of it snaps to pieces. “You need something hard to build on so it doesn’t give way,” I told her. I found a tin box that was in her room and put it in front of her, and helped her move her building project to the tin. Then it all just started to snap together with ease. Now I realize there is a lesson in that – build our lives on a firm foundation, or something to that effect. But as I lay there with my youngest, God wanted to teach ME a lesson. And she would be my instructor. As the frustration left and we finished snapping together the Lego invention of hers, she noticed that I was half-laying on a bunch of other loose Legos. She said, “Dad, you’re on the garden!” I raised my body and saw all the pieces. Quickly I scooped them out from under me and said, “Woops!” Then I started to snap them together in some fashion that I thought might be a garden. Maybe a garden box? She giggled and said, “No Dad… it’s a garden!” “Of course...!” I thought as I unsnapped them and put them together in a different way that I was thinking could be a garden. Again, with a smile she says, “No Dad. It’s a GARDEN,” with emphasis. Finally, I just stopped trying and said to her, “I know it’s a garden… but I don’t see it. Can you show me?” She took the pieces and unsnapped them all. Then she grouped them in little piles according to color – orange, yellow, red, and blue. She said, “See?! There’s carrots, and corn, and tomatoes, and blue berries!” The garden was there the whole time! Right in front of me! I didn’t have to do anything to piece it together or build it up, but I didn’t have eyes to see it. She did. I feel like God is saying to me (or others) that he has shown us pieces - many pieces of different colors, shapes and sizes. Different giftings, different ministry, different avenues for His glory to be manifest. We don’t need to strive and strain to make it into something. He has a plan for it all; He knows how it fits together. Have patience and never exit the rest we have in Him. And never be afraid to ask Him what He sees. Eventually, my daughter decided to line up the different colors in rows. The pieces in each row were different sizes, but the total length of each row was the same. It looked like a nice little garden with perfect rows. Finally, some order! To me, this NOW looked like a garden (with her insight that the colors were different fruits). But to her, it was a garden the whole time. Lord, I thank you for eyes that see! I ask for an increase in capacity to see what You’re doing. Help me to stop in my struggles and strivings and to just ASK You what You see. There is beauty in simplicity – help me to not make it more than it has to be! Lord give me faith to believe that what you say is a garden IS a garden, even when I don’t see it. When you say I will be used by You, help me to rest in knowing You will finish the work begun in me. When you say I am worthy, I am chosen, I am righteous, I am holy, I am a son of God, I am blessed with every spiritual blessing, I know my Father’s voice, I am victorious, I am an overcomer, I am powerful, I AM LOVED – Lord help me to forsake any thought that contradicts Your word even when I don’t see it or feel it. Amen.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 18:13:50 +0000
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