The Bigger Picture

I can't stand recipe books which don't include pictures of the finished product.

 

I am sold on the image and if I can't see what it is I am meant to be making, I am unlikely to bother cooking the recipe.  Some of my proudest moments (seriously) have included photographing my finished meal/dish in front of the recipe book propped open at the appropriate page to show just how accurately I have managed to follow the recipe and replicate the end product.

 

If I don't know what it's meant to look like, how am I meant to make it?

 

In the same way, I wrote yesterday about jigsaw pieces and it got me to thinking how irritating it is to try to complete a jigsaw puzzle when you don't actually know what the picture is you're trying to copy.

 

I don't cope very well with not knowing where life is heading - not being able to see the picture I'm aiming for.

 

If I can't see the picture, how do I know if I'm doing it right?

 

I'm beginning to see how narrow my view of life is in this way: maybe I don't need to know the plan all of the time.  Maybe I don't need to see the 'bigger picture' before I start living.  Maybe there isn't one 'right' or 'perfect' way to live it.

 

In Jeremiah, God says,

"I know what I'm doing, I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for."

 

[Jeremiah 29:11 MSG]

 

Subconsciously, I have always added a few lines to this verse.  I have included the fact that not only does God have good plans for us, but that He will reveal these good plans.  I seem to imagine that I am somehow 'entitled' to know all of His plans.

 

But maybe I'm not.  Maybe I don't need to see the bigger picture, because God can.