God's Eye View

I might have control issues. I get stressed when riding in a car I'm not driving. I avoid airplanes at many costs because not only do I not fly them, but I don't even know how it ought to be done, so I can't correct the pilot when he errs. It's a character flaw. Thankfully, I have a God who not only understands flaws, but forgives and corrects for them, so I am learning to allow more flight in my life. As a result, I have spent a lot of time in high places recently. In an airplane over Arizona, I understood the beauty of plateaus and buttes we studied in geography. Somewhere over the Midwest, I was astounded by geometry: land is divided in nearly perfect rectangles. Sometimes, as I observed over farmland, land is divided into perfect circles (for irrigation purposes, apparently) and sometimes not so perfect ones (read: land Pac-man). Because of land Pac-man, the camera came out and I captured the perfect Pac-man series played out on the farmlands of somewhere near Illinois. I began to consider what the people on the ground thought of those Pac-man's: realistically, they had no concept of these vast crops as they might be viewed from above. It occurred to me that if it came down to it, I would be in a much better position to navigate the maze than any fellow on the ground, who couldn't even see the Pac-man, nonetheless the maze. When I was little. I often worked on puzzles with my grandparents. The puzzles were never easy, but completion was very much aided by the nearby box top which contained the picture in full, providing essential hints to how the pieces fit together. Seeing the big picture helped us connect the little details. Without it, we would pick up random pieces, hoping they would fit, and when they didn't snap together, we would try another, inevitably growing frustrated with the task. Sometimes, we would force them together, only to realize it left a gaping hole in the picture later on. Most people would not attempt to travel somewhere unfamiliar without a map or GPS. They wouldn't play Pac-man without a bird's eye view of the maze. They wouldn't put a puzzle together without looking at the lid. Yet, we often walk around with the decisions in our lives, trying to fit them into situations that just don't click, without talking to the only one who can see the big picture. We either pick out option after option, frustrated when none of them work right, or we force our circumstances together when they don't really fit, and then we are left wanting further down the road. "So we see that [we are] not able to enter into His rest, because of [our] unwillingness to adhere to and trust in and rely on God" (Hebrews 3:19) We might have control issues. It is only when we listen to God that we begin to see our lives from above, the way he sees them. It is only when we seek his wisdom that we find the pieces that fit together. When we stop trying to force our lives to happen, God will fill the gaps. When we give up control, God will make something beautiful out of the scattered lives we offer him. In fact, he delights in offering this beauty: "And your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty, for it was perfect through My majesty and splendor which I had put upon you, says the Lord God" (Ezekiel 16:14) Daddy, Thank you for your majesty and omniscience. Forgive our tendency toward controlling our lives. Give us the freedom to offer our lives to you so that you can make beauty out of our ashes. Lord, give us wisdom not to force our lives, but to remember that you see what we will become and help us to seek first your will so that we may live to glorify you. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen