When doing a jigsaw puzzle, there’s nothing more disappointing than getting to the end and finding there’s a piece missing. After all the hours put in to make the picture complete, I sometimes find myself asking “was all that worth the effort?” But then I have to remind myself that it’s not always the end result that matters, but the process. It’s about taking the time to organize the pieces by each type, constructing the borders then filling in the middle, and poring over similar pieces of sky to find the cutouts that match just right. Because if I just wanted to look at a pretty picture, I wouldn’t go through the trouble of building it from scratch!
On a larger scale, sometimes life feels that way, like there’s a piece missing. We find ourselves longing to be someone, somewhere, sometime different, because maybe then we would know what our purpose and calling is. Or maybe we do know our purpose and calling, but it just doesn’t seem like we’re the right person for the job. Either way, we’re left wondering what on earth God’s doing and how we fit into all of it.
But thankfully, God can see the whole picture and is creating order through the chaos. And when God plans the design, there are no missing pieces.
I’ve been reflecting lately on the life of Queen Esther. Young, beautiful, and being raised by a respectable man, I can only imagine she had many plans for what her future would look like. My guess is none of those plans involved being rounded up with hundreds of other young women to be thrown before the king to serve his whims and pleasures. But instead of playing the victim and blaming God for her circumstances, she did everything she could to be excellent in the task she’d been given. And her diligence from the outset gave her the opportunity to be used by God to save her people, the children of Israel.
In trying to persuade her to take action and go before the king, Mordecai asked Esther, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14b) This must have been convincing enough, because she responded by having the Jews fast in prayer for her success. And through her faithfulness in following the Lord’s call, she brought about deliverance for Israel. God provided Esther with the perfect circumstances to further His kingdom. All she had to do was trust that His leading was true.
Another Old Testament figure on my mind as of late has been the prophet Jonah. Reluctant from the start, he knew exactly what God was calling him to do, and he tried everything in his power to avoid it. It wasn’t until he spent three nights in the belly of a fish that he finally realized there was nowhere he could go to escape his Lord. Maybe he didn’t feel equipped to do what God told him, or maybe he was ashamed of the prejudice in his own heart. Either way, he ran from the calling he’d been given.
Yet once again, the Lord provides. Not in the way Jonah expected, most likely. But in His own perfect way, He gave Jonah the assurance that He would equip His called. So it was with begrudging acceptance that Jonah finally saw how God’s fingerprints were all over his life, and that His purposes would prevail. Jonah may not have thought he could be the one to preach wrath to Nineveh, but through his eventual obedience, the city repented and was delivered from destruction.
In both the stories of Esther and Jonah, God prepared them to fight the battle before them. He didn’t give them their callings then drop them at the curb. He paved the way for them to go forth and follow His leading. But it certainly took a step of faith to walk into the murky waters before them, trusting the Lord to provide.
I think we can all relate to either story at various points in our lives. Where Jonah started by running away, Esther responded with prayer. But in the end, both figures took up God’s calling and acted in obedience. In both cases, obedience led to the deliverance of many people from harm.
How often do we feel like our story doesn’t fit in with God’s plan? Maybe our calling seems too big for how we see ourselves, or we feel lost in the tide of life. Perhaps there’s that missing piece that’s the answer to all our problems…
I think Mordecai’s words to Queen Esther serve as a powerful reminder today: perhaps we were born for a time such as this. God doesn’t make mistakes, and He certainly isn’t surprised when we resist. He knew from the beginning what part we would play, and His plan is perfect in design and execution.
Although there are trials and hardships in this life, I know I can rejoice in the calling set before me because it is the one given to me by God. He has prepared me to fight the battle before me, no matter how impossible it may seem.
Because of this, I can echo the psalm of King David, whose words ring true today as much as they did when they were first written thousands of years ago: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Ps. 139:13-14).