This jigsaw was completed by a team of dedicated puzzlers at our drop-in cafe recently. After false starts, mistakes, and lots of co-operation, the job was done. Oh, the satisfaction of fitting the last few pieces in the right places!

Honesty compels me to say that not every word spoken over that puzzle was positive during the assembly process.

Making sense of life has similarities! The Bible gives an overview of what we should be like- and why we exist at all- but doesn’t always give precise indications of the next step.

So many things to fit in. So many bits looking the same- nearly.

I was looking at the prophecy of Ezekiel tonight- and struggling with it. There are sections that are far from easy to comprehend. (Even the straightforward bits are quite difficult.) Chapters 40-42 are a detailed description of the Temple. And I mean detailed. Then in chapter 43 comes a statement: “Then the spirit took me up and brought me into the inner courtyard, and the glory of the LORD filled the Temple.”

The design, the puzzle, is complete. Does that mean Ezekiel is now easy to understand? I wish!

“Then the Spirit took me up…” is a recurring theme through the prophecy. Perhaps this statement is key? Like finding all the edge pieces of a jigsaw. That’s something to work with, anyway.

I don’t think I could ever write a commentary on Ezekiel… that’s a job for wiser and better scholars. But I’ve found a grain of sense that applies to working out my faith in practice. My life is a sequence of plans & events, and the key is the Spirit “taking me up” and putting me in the place where God IS- the inner courtyard, the Holy of Holies- for THEN the glory of the Lord enters in.

Christians are described as the Temple of God- “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3 v16).

May the Lord take us up, place us in His Presence, dwell in us, and glorify Christ in and through us. May He complete the work begun in us- and then the jigsaw we are living will finally be perfect.