Thursday, November 1, 2001
When my wife and I pulled up late to the Bed and Breakfast we were going to be staying at, I tried to be real quiet. I was afraid we might wake some people up, you know. Not a problem. That B & B was buzzing like a beehive. Inside there were ten women huddled around the dining room table, each one with a sewing machine in front of her. Now, I learned that the other guests--all women--were there that weekend for a Mystery Quilt weekend. They were each making a quilt...some for the first time. And even though I felt like I had sort of crashed a grownup slumber party, I did ask a few curious questions like, "What pattern are you following?" They didn't know. See, it turns out that one of the women there, Millie, does these quilting weekends with ladies...and she has the pattern. It's a mystery quilt because each woman only has instructions what to do with the next piece or pieces; she has no idea what all those pieces will make. The next day, one lady said to me, "I can't wait 'till I can see what all this is going to look like when it's all put together." Good thing she didn't leave early with her pile of pieces, huh? She would have never known what it all made.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Pieces Without The Plan."
Actually, that's a description of some of our lives: pieces without the plan--because we're away from the only One who has the plan. I guess, in a way, life is a mystery quilt. All we can see is the block we're working on right now. But every once in a while, we find ourselves asking that question that has haunted us for years, "Why am I doing all this? What does all this make?"
It could be that right now the pieces aren't making much sense at all. And you're not sure of the answer to the one question you have to answer while you're on earth, "Why am I here?" You miss that and you've missed the point of your whole life. And so far, none of the things, none of the people you thought would make it make sense have done it. Life still seems like a pile of disconnected pieces.
I hope you'll be encouraged by our word for today from the Word of God, Jeremiah 29:11. "'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" According to the Bible, you're a unique creation of God. Just look at your fingerprints if you don't believe He's made you one of a kind. And He has plans for you--great plans. Like the lady who organized that quilting weekend, God has the plan in His hand. But if you're away from the One who has the plan, there's no way to put the pieces together right.
So much of the confusion, many of the mistakes, a lot of the emptiness, the pain in your life, may have been because you've been trying to put it together without the only One who knows the plan. God is the only One who knows why you're here. The problem is that, again according to the Bible, every one of us has tried to do life our way instead of God's way. In God's words, "All of us have wandered away like sheep; each of us has turned to his own way." (Isaiah 53:6) Without divine intervention, you and I have hopelessly separated ourselves from the One who designed us.
But divine intervention came on a brutal cross on a hill outside Jerusalem, where God's one and only Son died as a substitute for you and me, carrying our death penalty for our running our own lives. Which means that where there was once an uncrossable divide, there is now a Bridge. And His name is Jesus.
And today, Jesus comes to you where you are, offering you the opportunity to tell Him you want Him to be your Savior from your sin, to connect you to the God you've been separated from, to the One who holds the plans and purpose for your life in His hands. When you find Him, you've found the meaning of your life.