THE PUZZLE
January 12, 2021
Prayer: Jesus, thanks for trading my impossible puzzle for your new puzzle. Help me daily put these pieces together – THANKS, PRAISE, BE STILL, LISTEN AND OBEY.
Scripture: Yahweh is the one and only everlasting God, the Creator of all you can see and imagine! He never gets weary or worn out. His intelligence is unlimited; He is never puzzled over what to do! (Isaiah 40:28 TPT)
“Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Then come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.” (Matthew 11:28-30 TPT)
Jesus stands in a classroom observing a frustrated, exhausted, anxious teacher who has just arrived to prepare for the last week of instruction before Christmas break. Her smile is applied like her make-up, masking the dark circles under both eyes which indicate her loss of sleep. In truth, she looks like she has just finished another twelve-hour workday—routine during the current pandemic—just to stay afloat.
Scattered over the top of her desk is an unfinished 300-piece jigsaw puzzle. Beneath the title, “THE PERFECT CLASSROOM,” on the top of the puzzle box is a picture of the completed puzzle: an ever-changing kaleidoscope made by pieces of the expectations of self, administrators, parents, students, the district, and state and federal governments.
Although the teacher is stationary in her chair, she becomes dizzy and experiences motion sickness looking at the puzzle. Glancing away, she notices Jesus standing beside her and speaks to Him, “I don’t have enough pieces, time, and resources to complete this puzzle. The picture is constantly changing.”
Jesus replies, “Fix your eyes on me and what I want you to do and the puzzle will stop moving. I am the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Abba has given you more than you can humanly handle in order for you to depend on me and not your own and others’ understanding. You are not in charge in this classroom. I AM. I am in charge of you and this classroom, but only if you let go of control and stop trying to figure it out all by yourself.”
Stepping nearer, Jesus dramatically sweeps all the puzzle pieces onto the floor with one hand as if once again clearing the coins from the money changers’ tables in the temple. In His other hand He holds five large, primary, puzzle pieces which He sets down on the cleared desk. On each puzzle piece are different words: THANKS, PRAISE, BE STILL, LISTEN, and OBEY. The teacher looks at the pieces and knows it will not take long to put them together, even without a picture on a box to reference.
Reading her thoughts, Jesus speaks, “The problem is you have put me in a box—two boxes actually—one in your community church and the other in your private home life. You take me out and acknowledge me in those places but not here at work. I don’t fit in boxes. I am always with you, to guide and lead you, 24 hours a day—seven days a week. Put my puzzle together and watch what I will do. Close your classroom door and pray here like you do in your prayer closet at home. Invite other teachers during off duty hours, before and after school or at lunch, to pray in agreement in my name as you do in church. Share these five puzzle pieces with students, parents, and staff. Beneath their masks many are just as tired, worn out, and sick as you are. Against these five puzzle pieces there is no law.”
Picking up the five puzzle pieces, the teacher begins with hope to put them together.
Copyright Don Clark. Email [email protected]
Don, this devotional is excellent. I can almost hear your voice as you read it aloud. Although I am no longer in the classroom, I need to put the pieces of the simpler puzzle together so that I am not consumed and so easily overwhelmed by the things on my “to do” list. I appreciate you and this very timely message that has hit the nail on the head. Your CT Sister in Christ, Clara