Life Through the Lens: Shaped by the master planner

This post was contributed by Kevin Schrapel, and is the author’s personal opinion.

The small boy watched the man using a hammer and chisel to shape a rock.

“What are you doing, mister?”

With a grunt and a hammer-crash came the reply: “I’m building a bridge”.

Looking around, in a perplexed voice, the boy asked, “Where?”

The man glanced over his shoulder at the river behind him, pointed the chisel and answered, “Across there”.

The boy squinted at the river, turned and, studying the rock, commented, “That rock’s not big enough”.

Pausing, the man indicated what looked like a small mountain of boulders and muttered, “When I use all of them, it’ll work”.

“But they’re all different shapes and sizes – they’ll never fit and stay together,” came the studied reply.

Standing and stretching his cramped muscles and placing a weathered hand on the boy’s shoulder, he assured him, “They will when I am finished”.

How often do we observe our own lives and wonder what is it all about?

Like the boy asking the stonemason, maybe we would better understand God’s plan if we talk to him, listen to him and get a better understanding from the “master planner”.

Unlike the stonemason with hammer and chisel, God, using his love and life experiences, will often quietly chip at an unhelpful attitude, slowly sandpapering away at feelings of inadequacy until confidence is revealed and you and others recognise the new and polished “you”.

The master craftsman might use another who cares for you, holding a magnifying glass to enable you to look closer at yourself and see the cracks made by anger and hurt, cracks that – without the filling glue of God’s love – might mean you never fit into the place in life meant for you.

God tells us, “I know the plans I have for you … plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Equally, if we are prepared to listen, he promises, “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8).

Sadly, if a rock being worked on by the man and his chisel broke, all he could do was throw it away and look for another rock.

Happily, God’s love is the strongest glue ever, always able to repair and put back together broken lives.

Often we are tempted to ask, “Where is God working in my life, why doesn’t he clarify what he has in mind for me, where does he want me to fit?”

At such times, it is often wise to look back and ask him to help you recognise where he has already been working, remembering, “the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness; instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to live without God’s love, but everyone to turn and live, knowing his love” (2 Peter 3:9).

Praying that you enjoy a week shaped by God’s love.

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