The Puzzle of You.

A Lesson Learned: by Robin Thomas

“I am stuck on Band-Aid brand ‘cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me…”

Okay, who is singing along with me? That is one of those embedded jingles from our youth that periodically resurfaces and amazes us when we remember every word.

I honestly should have bought stock in Band-Aid® given how much I have supported them over the years. My son is allergic to latex so we have to use the “flexible fabric.” Active kids= band-aids, however, sometimes you need to go old school with the sterile gauze and Vetrap™ by 3M, or a self-adhesive bandage. I usually keep them in stock, active kid, remember? but on this particular occasion, I was out.

I went out of my way to go to the store and get them since my son, of course, needed one. I came back and he was gone. Figures. So I put them in the cabinet and forgot about them.

This morning my poor sweet puppy dog, Hank, ripped one of his back toenails and it was bleeding all over. I yelled at my son to get up and help me and he came running with the sterile gauze and, you guessed it, the Vetrap.™ Thank goodness I had gone out of my way to go to the store and get the Vetrap.™

Like in the immortal words of The Rolling Stones,

“You don’t always get what you want…..but if you try sometimes, you just might get what you need.”

What I considered a wasted trip to get the bandages turned out to be restocking just what I needed for the emergency. Whew!

God is like that. He sees the big picture. He put things in place along the way that may not make sense at the time; a seemingly wasted trip, a job change, a switched major, an illness.

Your eyes have seen my formless substance; And in Your book were written All the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. –Psalm 139:16

God knew us before we were born; He has seen every day we have lived and knows every day in our future. Who better than God to direct our path?

Have you ever noticed that on the bottom of an In and Out Burger cup there is a scripture reference? Don’t take my word for it, go check it out for yourself. Get a medium chocolate shake and ponder this thought:

“Trust the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5-6

God is putting together THE PUZZLE OF YOU. Some things make sense, some don’t but all things work together.

Vincent Van Gogh said,

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”

Some pieces of your life are straightforward and linear, they line up in perfect sequence and all is bright and cheery, but other pieces are jagged and misshapen and are hard to find and fit into the correct places. And let’s not forget the elusive, “missing piece’ that usually takes us off course and we swear that it can’t be found, but then it is.

So next time I go out of my way to do something and feel like it is a wasted trip I will trust in the Lord as He puts together the puzzle of Me!