Last Sunday Tom C. opened our class with an interesting illustration.
Below is how I interpreted what he was showing (some poetic freedom applied):
He drew a square on the board, and said that is how we think a perfect form should be.
Then he said that sometimes a wrecking ball hits one side of that square, distorting it somehow.
A grinder takes a chunk of one of the corners.
Something else hits it from inside and creates a bulge.
Then a piece is broken from another corner.
…
After a while the shape looks more like a jig saw puzzle than a square.
But it is only then that the piece fits the big puzzle.
If that is an illustration of our lives, God causes or allows all those bangs, cuts and bruises to happen, to shape us the way He wants.
So we can fit His big puzzle and have our contribution to the big picture.
Understanding that may not alleviate the pain each bang causes, but may help us understand that He has a purpose for our lives, if we are willing to be used by Him.
Have you felt a bang lately?