Wednesday, January 17, 2018

“For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.” (1 Corinthians 13: 9 - 10)                

One piece. One piece of 2000 pieces. Only one little piece but without that one little piece my jigsaw puzzle is incomplete. It is lost!

And incompleteness sometimes drives me crazy. I am not so much a perfectionist as I am a completist. For example,  I have gaps  in some of my various years of  baseball card collections that have me pining for their completion somehow. Another, I hate not being able to finish a crossword puzzle. Another, I will read every book in a fantasy anthology series even it contains multiple books. That happened recently with Robin Hobb’s excellent fantasy series about the Farseer royal line - 12 books in all.

(The irony is that being a completist is in direct opposition with one of my many others sins - procrastination, and maybe laziness, too, but that’s another story for another time.)

I have made like the woman who swept her house until she found her lost coin in one of Jesus’ parables, but so far, I have not found my lost puzzle piece. It is not complete! All my long, hard work does not feel finished without that one piece. It is not the end of the world, by any means, but just the same it is irksome.

The above scripture verse comes from Paul’s famous words about love. He has just described love in precise, poetic, inspiring ways concluding that love never ends. Then he segues into his thinking that there is much about life that does end, that remains incomplete. We can never get to the whole of it. I suppose he is saying that there are things that remain mysterious, puzzling, questionable and inexplicable.

We are constantly in the process of growing, maturing, learning, adapting, figuring some of the stuff out but never putting all the pieces together. Elsewhere he wrote, “Not that I have already obtained this [i.e. becoming like Jesus Christ] or have already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own, because Jesus Christ has made me his own.” (Phil.3:12)

We never stop trying, never give up, never quit to find wholeness, completeness, harmony, fullness, balance and answers to important life questions.  For some it remains a muddle and they need our help, prayers and nurture. For others they are never satisfied and they need our encouragement, support and patience.  Many of us find not so much all the answers as we exercise our faith in God through Christ as we simply find reassurance, hope, peace, love, forgiveness, grace and a spirit of joy even when there a few pieces missing. Jesus speaks to us, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)

I am not totally convinced that this spirit of completeness means some sort of finality or being done with something. I think it has more to do more with living the abundant life that comes with a relationship with Christ and striving to be more like him. I am most and best complete when the Love of God pulls the pieces of my life together and we set out to complete the task that God has given each one of us in becoming sons of Adam and daughters of Eve in a new creation, to “make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:21)

Dale