From Puzzle to Picture

There were hundreds of pieces

Of varying size

But no picture to guide me,

That I truly despised.

How was I to fix this puzzle?

This was not even practical,

At least show me a picture

And that would be reasonable.

“There are guidelines there,”

An inner voice assured,

“The diversity of the pieces:

That is your open door.

If they were all alike

Would that have helped?”

Of course not I responded

And at least better I felt.

Of course I was having a chat

With that voice within me

And I dare say to all

That was no sign of insanity.

In my relaxed frame of mind

I searched for the corners

Then put the border together

To frame the picture.

Then I saw eyes and noses

A hairline then two

And then faces were formed

I found my working crew.

From puzzle to picture

It was beginning to form:

A community of working people

Just like the everyday norm.

The nurse and the police

The postman and the cleaner,

These and other community workers

Were all there in my picture.

  

There were children too

And mothers with infants in arms

And going about their daily business

Added to the overall charm.

The puzzle was almost complete

Just a dozen more pieces or so

From puzzle to picture, O yes!

With no picture at first to show.

Quite daunting at the beginning

Most satisfying in the end,

Like the challenges we face in life

And the daily effort we expend.

Nothing is more satisfying

Than a puzzle we have unraveled,

Particularly when at the beginning

It was truly a daunting puzzle.

The pieces were so out of place

As though they all were wrong

But when I got the workers together

I saw where each piece belonged.

If all our workers get together

And play their individual roles

Our puzzle would become a picture,

There would be no gaping holes.

Don’t hanker after another’s role

With yours do the best you can

Be a piece the puzzle can’t do without

Be a part of the master plan!

Stewart Russell © March 2019

There’s A Reason

 

There’s a reason for everything

Even when it’s unknown to you

And a purpose for all that happens

Even if you don’t know of that too.

A picture paints a thousand words

Is a saying that that we know very well

But if those pixels were separate

How could you that picture tell?

Events that happen to you and to me

Are the pixels in the picture of life

So that often we cannot understand

Those events that cause us strife.

We often believe we understand

Those experiences that fit our plan,

These are occurrences that bring us favour

And are prescribed by the heart of man.

“Life is lived forward and understood

Backwards,” somebody once said

But by the time that we understand

That event is long passed and dead.

 

You see understanding only comes

When events are strung together

That paint a picture we afterwards see

To partially assess some matter.

Remember, we don’t repeat history

Though intelligent minds say we do,

It’s life’s mistakes we rehearse again

As in a movie it’s Act-one Scene-two.

Life is not a canvas on which we paint,

It’s more like the brush we use

And all the strokes we daily make

Are to paint the picture we choose.

We see the bigger picture of life

By way of a single myopic lens

Believing that what happens in that regard

Should mostly to our benefit portend.

  

And when prognoses prove incorrect

And the reason to us is unknown

We chastise the Creator of all of life

For altering our picture’s colour tone.

 

We forget that our individual affairs

Are selfish agendas in our life’s scheme

And the God of all creation overseas

All that happens on the earthly scene.

Absolutely nothing is hid from Him

Not one iota and not one jot,

His picture has been painted already

Time is revealing each pixel and each dot.

So much of the puzzle we can’t explain

As we appraise its panoramic view

But while only now unfolding to us

It is what its painter already knew.

The big questions of life He knows

Our origin, our purpose, our destiny,

The hairs on our heads he numbered

And established them from eternity.

So there’s a reason for everything

Even when that purpose is unknown to us,

The Only One knows such a reason

God the Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus.

 

You may marvel that I said the Only One

And then proceeded to number three,

That’s one of the questions I can’t explain

But I accept its authenticity.

For the Bible shows clearly this is so

When stating the attributes of these Three

And the best we can in our limited language

Is to express God as a Tri-unity.

How can someone be three and yet one?

That question is for you, not me

For once God’s Word conveys that point

I merely declare it’s the reality.

For while I will attempt to understand

I know I won’t always succeed

Especially regarding what God reserves

And in my own understanding impedes.

These secret things belong to God

And He knows why there are not revealed

But those things He has revealed to us

Make Him still worthy of our appeal.

In Him we live, move and have our being

That’s according to Acts 17 and verse 28

And the choices we make in the here and now

Will determine our eventual and eternal state.

 

To everything there is a season

And a time to every purpose under heaven,

In six days God created heaven and earth

And rested on day number seven.

A fitting demonstration of His omnipotence

And omniscience throughout the ages,

There is a reason for all that He has done

And all that pertains to life’s stages.

Our response to the vicissitudes of life

And the complex issues that frequently arise

Is to trust the One who has all the answers

And what He abhors we should also despise.

Stewart Russell © 2017

Enthused and Amused

The earth has got to be flat

And I’ll tell you the reason why

Because people living in Australia

Are looking up at the sky.

If the earth were spherical

No way that could have occurred

Since they would be down under

And that I cannot picture.

As a sphere I would imagine

They would never see the sky

But since the earth is really flat

Anyone can see the reason why.

I know that you are laughing

And you think that I am mad

But having carefully studied this

I find it more than just a fad.

Those so called photos from NASA

Had me fooled a long time

But I discovered it was just a trick

To mess around with my mind.

As you know and I know too

A sphere has a shape like a ball

So that people at the bottom of it

From it would likely fall.

But since the earth is truly flat

That is not the likelihood

For nobody has ever fallen off

As on a sphere some really would.

On a clear and cloudless night

Take a good look at the moon

It bears the shape of a simple disk

So it’s flat you can assume.

Extrapolate that to the earth

And you would see just what I mean

Like the moon the earth is flat

And not round as many have deemed.

  

The people in Columbus’ day

Were definitely of the right notion,

Columbus never proved them wrong

On account of the size of the ocean.

You see the oceans of the earth

Are huge beyond our measure

But we pretend to know their size

And also their hidden treasure.

We have swallowed Columbus’ lie

Even though reality says otherwise,

It is so stuck within our minds

That flat earth believers we despise.

Draw a picture of the earth

Then draw the people on the sides

Now examine what you have drawn,

Reality and fiction you’ve reconciled.

Do you see the ones at the top?

They are likely to stay in place

But very few do live in that spot,

Why, that would be a colossal disgrace.

For that is one of the coldest spots

That not many people would inhabit

So if the earth were really round

Not many people would be living on it.

Those along the sides and bottom

Would long have fallen off

Unless of course they are stuck with glue,

At such I would have to scoff

I know that your glue is gravity

That is the reason you would give,

But with those at the bottom upside down

How would you expect them to live?

The final point to make is this

You argue that the earth is spinning,

Stop for a moment and think about that

By now you must be grinning.

Already you have a problem

So that you have to stick people on,

Add to that a spinning earth

And those at the top would soon be gone. 

“Put on your seat-belts everyone

You are in for a turbulent ride.”

I’m just joking; there’s no need for that,

The earth is flat: no bottom, no sides.

If you must, be enthused and amused

But please don’t be confused.

You can believe whatever you choose

But please don’t fall for Satan’s ruse.

He knows how to enthuse and amuse,

He knows how to bemuse and confuse,

His objective is to misuse and abuse

Until the hope of salvation you lose.

Stewart Russell © 2017