Framework

My five-year-old granddaughter loves to put together a jigsaw puzzle with me. The dinosaurs are all over the place; it is a confusing picture, but she really enjoys trying to fit the pieces together. However, she does not yet “get” the concept of outlining the puzzle with the straight edges first. She zealously tries each piece in every possible orientation, tossing it out and trying another as quickly as possible. She looks for the shapes, but not the “big picture.” Without the edges, the separate parts of the picture get WAAAY spread out.

Most of us try to outline a jigsaw puzzle before we fill in the other pieces. Maybe that’s because the pieces with a straight edge are easier to place, but it usually gives us security to know where we are working, relative to the whole picture. If we have no framework, we’re not sure how far up or down or how near or far each particular piece might go. We are literally “lost in space” without the frame. Putting together the inside pieces without setting the frame first would make the game more challenging. In fact, maybe I’ll try it, just for fun. After all, challenge is what games are about, right?

Unfortunately, life can be too challenging. When I was a child, I had the blessing of learning about God in Sunday School. I knew He was righteous and He knew all things. There were often times when I lived with untrue and unfair accusations, when there was no one who believed my honest intentions or listened to my words. I felt alone, lost, and hopeless. But I always knew that God knew the truth and it mattered to Him. That was my great comfort, because ultimately He mattered most. Sometimes that was all I had to hang onto. But it was enough.

What if I had not had that framework into which I could fit my confusing, disjointed life? Many of those scattered pieces made no sense. There was often despair. The only hope came from knowing God’s character. For those who do not know God, the framework for life is not there. There is no sense, no order, and no hope. Every time we can communicate to someone that God is, that He knows them, that He is good and loving and understanding, we build into their lives some of the framework of love, order, and strength that we all so desperately need. Psalm 32:10 tells us, “the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in Him.” Sometimes that is all we have to hang onto. But it is enough.

 --Lynda Shenefield