As I was laying floors this past weekend I thought of a helpful analogy for putting our faith in God even when we can’t see everything God is doing.
When you are laying floors it is helpful to have someone troweling glue, someone laying wood into the glue and someone outside cutting. I think our relationship with God is a lot like the guy measuring/installing the wood and the guy outside cutting the boards. The guy inside measures the boards to make sure they fit just right. He measures and marks the boards for cutting and takes the board out to the cut guy (that’s us). I am not sure who the glue guy is yet (Jesus or the Spirit?) but let’s not stretch this analogy too far now!
Our job is to find the mark on the board for reference and cut it as best we can. We give it back to him and he goes in and installs the board. We cut board after board after board. Some we cut on the mark while other times we miss. When we miss, he goes in and figures out how to make it fit the plan in order for the floor to be complete, just as he intended it. We don’t see this all come together. All we see is one board after the next that gives us a glimpse of what is going on inside and an idea of how the floor will look. But it is not until the whole floor is laid just right that the installer comes out and gets us. He turns off the saw, puts his arm around our shoulders and walks us inside to see the finished masterpiece.
I think our faith is a lot like that. We don’t always get to see everything God is doing but he is giving us reference points to try to follow. When we follow them everything fits his plan. When we don’t, he makes up the difference and works it out anyway. What is amazing is he keeps handing us boards even though we haven’t cut them all perfectly! All we have to do is keep cutting and keep believing that He is going to make the pieces fit the way he planned. Then one day we actually get to step inside with him and see how it all came together.
Tie in Scriptures…
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1
“Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” – Romans 8:23-25
“”Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” – John 14:1-4
0 Responses
Wonderful post Matt.
Keep up the great work you do with your blog.
I may get you to do our floors next.
🙂
LOL.
I hope you have a great week.
Wish Id been there to help…….