Throwing Jigsaws in the Air.

I was brought up to go to Church as a child. I was sent out to Salvation Army, Sunday morning service, Sunday School, The Robins (Junior Section of The Boy’s Brigade). As a teenager I kept on going. Boy’s Brigade, Sunday afternoon Bible School, Youth Club, Young People’s Clubs, Scripture Union Groups and various other things besides. But none of this “grounded” me in church life. There was something that wasn’t quite “in place”. As such, my church life waxed and waned, as did my enthusiasm and devotion to the things of God.

My faith was never rejected. I had kept all my books and my notes and my scribblings. I didn’t realise it but I was still subconsciously hoping that something would click into place. Something would link all these things together. It’s like I was wanting someone to throw a jigsaw puzzle of Christian faith into the air and for it to land on the table fully assembled. But that never happened.

It never happens that way. Because that’s not the way it’s meant to happen.

I don’t remember anyone ever telling me to slow down. I believed that you had to learn this doctrine, or that theology. I could recite you the 5 Points of Calvinism. I would enjoy conversations about the Westminster Confession of Faith, and Pre-Destination. (There. I’ve said it. I was brought up as a Presbyterian). But these little sections of the jigsaw puzzle just wouldn’t connect for me.

And then one day I overheard a conversation with a man. I don’t think he was even interested in talking to me as he was busy working. I don’t think he even realised that he had even caught my attention. Infact the conversation wasn’t even with me, he was chatting to someone I was with. I was just listening in. He started talking about how everything revolved around our relationship with Jesus. Nothing more than that. And nothing else mattered.

Slowly, over the next few weeks, my thoughts started to dwell on this. Was this the key to it all? Maybe I had been told it before, but it just didn’t gel with me. The jigsaw pieces had not quite been in place yet for them to come together. Only now, all the pieces started to fit together. Nowadays there is nothing, or no one, who can tell me that the guy was wrong. Everything seems to make sense now that I look at it all through the light of Jesus.

I have also learned that our faith and our growth in God is a process. It all comes together in His time. (See Ecclesiastes 3:11). 

You see…..

The salvation of a soul is the miracle of a moment,

But the making of a Saint is the miracle of a lifetime.


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