My family is part of a homeschool co-op. One of the biggest benefits our co-op offers is called Tuesday School. Tuesday School takes place on Tuesday mornings and lasts for three hours. During this time, students from K-12 can take a variety of classes and enjoy time with their friends. Also during the same hours, there are “classes” for ages infant through four years. The younger children’s classes are similar to Sunday School or perhaps Vacation Bible School.
During first hour, I am assigned to be an assistant in the four-year-olds class. The lead teacher is an amazing woman. She is unfailingly patient, encouraging, and creative, and she speaks to the children in a pleasant, upbeat voice that draws them to her. She possesses the amazing abilities of being able to attract kids into the activities even when they’re distracted and of knowing how to discipline in a truly positive, constructive manner that doesn’t embarrass the child.
One morning, our class went upstairs for the educational activities time. The teacher gathered all the students in front of her and sat down on the floor with them. She showed them a book she had brought. Each page in the book had a small square cut out of the middle. Through the square, you could see a portion of the picture on the page behind it. The teacher asked the children to guess what the picture was with only a two-inch square of the actual photo to give them a clue. For example, the small, square picture would seem to show a desolate wasteland, but the entire picture would turn out to reveal an elephant.
I enjoyed the activity, even though I got most of the answers wrong. The children enjoyed it, too. They would all laugh delightedly together when someone guessed “tree bark” and it turned out to be a volcano. It was pretty funny.
What isn’t funny, though, is when we make mistaken judgments such as these in real life.
Often, we think we see the big picture, when in reality we are as far off as we can be. We glimpse a tiny snapshot of a situation or of our circumstances, and we assume we know the big picture, when only God does.
We see a job loss and think the big picture is financial ruin, when God knows that the big picture is really learning to trust him.
Our child disappoints us, and we think the big picture is that we’ve failed as a parent, when God knows that in reality, the picture is all about realizing that we are not completely in control of any human being, no matter what we like to think.
Or, most painful, someone we love dies, and we see nothing but devastation, when God knows that what is yet to be revealed is the awful beauty of clinging to Him and being enfolded in His arms when the world all around us goes mad.
It’s hard to see pain in the small picture and not assume that the big picture is nothing but more of the same. But only God truly knows how every detail in life fits into the masterpiece He is creating.
The picture that morning at Tuesday School looked like a desolate wasteland; really, it was an elephant. Maybe the small picture in your life looks like a desolate wasteland, too. But what is it really?
Could it be that what looks like a bleak, empty landscape is really part of a beautiful work of art such as only God can create?
It can be, and it is. You see, God takes what looks like ashes to us and makes something beautiful from them. God doesn’t create or allow ashes in our lives to no good purpose. He always has a plan, and His plan is always to His glory. The full picture He is designing is always beautiful.
So what do we do when all we can see is a two-inch-by-two-inch square, and that square looks useless, painful, or agonizing? We trust the Master Artist. We let Him compose the masterpiece. And we don’t worry if we can’t see the whole picture. One day, we will.
And it will be beautiful.
1 John 3:2—Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Isaiah 61:1-3– The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.