I am merely dust my Lord, being tossed about in the tempest that is my life. Formed in my mother's womb, my days counted and seen by your eyes that are able to view the landscape that is eternity. Knowing the moment I would take my first breath and the day I would exhale it the last time. Watching as I took my first step, seeing me stumble and fall as my mind began to process what a big world I've entered.
Listening to every conversation my parents had invested in me and looking in disbelief as I began to chart my own course.

Your protection, whether by Angel or Jesus' hand always encompassing me when those charted courses went astray. What is it Lord in a child's nature that pushes them in all the wrong directions? Knowing how much a parent's heart hurts when they watch the rebellious spirit...Father, how we must make you feel.

To be Blessed with earthly wealth does make life easier and more comfortable, simpler, with less stress. You know something though...our Heavenly Father put just the right amount of wealth in our hands to create his purpose in our lives. I bet there were times when you were growing up when you had five dollars in your pocket and you were happy as you could be. When you got older and after you had paid the bills, the one hundred dollars you had left didn't offer the same happiness the five dollar bill once created.

God has allowed all the pieces of your life's puzzle to start being pieced together from your birth until your death. As you grow up the puzzle is really messed up, relationships, jobs, deaths, accidents, illness, but like he put you together at conception, God continues to put the puzzle together called 'your life.' God doesn't like easy puzzles, nope, all the pieces come in every shape and size imaginable. As he begins to piece together a section, he'll watch as you choose to pull that piece apart and once again start a new course. Some of the puzzle pieces are named selfish, pride, success and failure, tears and fears, joy and laughter, but all the pieces have a shape they are placed in. Their names and faces cover the face of the globe.

God could say any moment...wait a moment, this is my puzzle, but he doesn't. He says we are his 'good pleasure' and that's exactly what we are! Is it a pleasure to watch you wreck your lives and the one's you love, no, but he has loved us that much to give you those choices to make, to be a co-creator in the puzzle of your life. The big picture is all Gods, but I'm sure the puzzle builders he watches everyday never lack for a dull moment.

I'm glad God is a God of opportunity. I'm glad God is a God who can love me when I've screwed up his puzzle pieces. I'm glad God knows exactly when to take certain pieces back out of my hands and put them where they really belong. I'm glad Jesus has never left my side through my darkest times when the thoughts of my life were a real puzzle. Even though I've crammed pieces of my puzzle in places they didn't fit and sometimes I even broke some of the pieces, God's smile has always returned to his face, because when life's beginning to wind down, that puzzle you and Jesus put together has turned out pretty spectacular!

Author's Bio: 

64 year old male living with wife Linda in Virginia Beach, Va. Former Naval Reserve Vietnam Veteran. Import manager of 2 different Customs House Brokerage firms, Route Salesman, Delivery driver and Target employee. Authored two Christian books. Owner of website neuropathynick.com and blog author-randolph-alvis.blogspot.com