Valerie Rae Hanneman
Revelation 22:20 (NIV) “He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”
When my daughter Fawn was about seven she and I were putting together a puzzle. When we put in the last piece we discovered that a piece was missing. It wasn’t a piece of the sky or the grass - oh no, my luck doesn’t run that way. It was the face of one of the characters, the most important piece. After a short search for it I suggested to Fawn that it really wasn’t that important. My daughter, the possessor of a ferocious temper (that she inherited from me)promptly threw a royal hissy fit. It was a sight to behold and, needless to say, we did not stop looking until we found that missing piece of the puzzle.
Piece by piece, Father is putting together the picture of human history, which is really His-story. There is a piece that is shaped like a newly created planet, another shaped like a snake. There is one shaped like an ark and one shaped like a tower built to reach God’s heaven. Here is a piece shaped like two tablets of stone right next to a piece shaped like a golden calf. Some of the pieces are shaped like lepers and Samaritans, like a little boy’s lunch and a crashing wave. Here’s a piece shaped like tongues of fire and one shaped like Paul. Even newer pieces are shaped like an edict nailed to a church door, and a ship of missionaries crossing to a strange land. Over there are the pieces of great evangelists who brought revivals of faith to the nations, and right here is one of my favorite pieces because it is shaped just like you - and there is that goofy shaped one that looks like me. Some of the pieces are small, some are big. Some of them are as old as time, some of them as new as a child’s first cry. Some of them don’t look like they are important to the picture but all of them are needed to complete the masterpiece of what God is creating. There are, however, four vitally important pieces. For without those four pieces the picture does not make sense. In fact, the picture doesn’t even exist.
The first piece is shaped like a manger. It’s the first time that everything changed. Up until this moment God has been thunder and lighting on Mount Sinai, He’s been behind the veil of the temple, He has come to people for a time and a purpose but He does not stay. And now with this child in a manger, El Elyon, The Most High God, has become Emmanuel, God with us. He looks just like us and He acts just like us. Jesus, the Glory of Heaven has become just an ordinary guy. Isaiah says that He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.(Isaiah 53:2) For His first 30 years as a human nobody can tell that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. But nothing will ever be the same.
The second piece is shaped like a bloodstained cross. With it being placed into the picture everything changes again. For three years the hands of God have touched His creation to heal and restore. His feet have walked to bring a message of hope and redemption. His voice has been strong and sure as He taught the multitudes. But now, in His supreme act of love, God’s hands are nailed to a cross, God’s feet are nailed to a cross. God’s voice, weak from thirst, raspy from trying to breathe says, “It is finished”and He dies for our sins. The earth shakes at His death. The temple veil is torn by God the Father from top to bottom as mercy and grace replace justice. And nothing will ever be the same.
The third piece - how I love this third piece - is shaped like an empty tomb. A shout of victory shakes the Throne Room as it is put into it’s place. Once again, everything changes. Jesus died for our sins. His lifeless body was laid in a borrowed tomb. Had that been the end of it then Jesus would have been just one more good man dying for a good cause. But there is a big surprise waiting for the women making their way to the tomb in the early morning to put the finishing touch to the end of a good man. But He is not a good man, He is a Great God, and He does not lay lifeless in that tomb. He has risen from the dead. He has defeated death and the grave. He defeated them for us. Sin, death and the grave no longer have a hold over us. Nothing will ever be the same.
The fourth piece, the piece of promise, has not been placed yet. This piece is shaped like a crown. It is the final piece and when it is placed the picture will be complete. When the first piece was placed, Jesus came as Emmanuel. When the second piece was placed, Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins. When the third piece was placed, Jesus was the LORD, risen in victory. The fourth piece will be placed when He comes back to earth to take His rightful place of King of kings and LORD of lords. It will be the most glorious day in His-story. I don’t know how many more pieces have to be added to the picture before the final piece can be placed. My children’s pieces have been placed, will my grandchildren’s pieces be placed? Or my great-grandchildren? I don’t know - I just know that His promise is true and that final piece will be placed. And on that day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD of all. We will be complete. Nothing will ever be the same.
Like the picture of His-story, Abba is also completing a picture within me. Eleven years ago He took the broken pieces of my life and started fitting them back together again. The picture He has made of my life is beautiful, more beautiful than I would have ever imagined it could be. But it is not complete. There is a piece missing - an important piece. It holds part of my heart, part of my joy, my dreams, my anticipation and my longings. It’s not really missing though because I know right where it is. It is in Jesus’ hands. And when I dance out of this world and into eternity, I will fall on my face before Him. My tears of joy will land on His feet. Then He will touch me and my heart will be complete, my picture will be complete, I will be complete.
LORD Jesus, how I long for the day when I will see the fourth and final piece put into place when every knee bows and You are crowned King of kings and LORD of lords. But even more, I long for the day that I will be at Your feet and You make me complete.
Contact Valerie or sign up for the e-Ministry of FFBC at valerie@fresnofirst.org
Posted by Valerie at December 29, 2006 08:18 PM