Bits and Pieces

Scripture Reading: Job 16:1-17

“God has handed me over to sinners.  He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.  I was living quietly until he shattered me.  He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces.”            (Job 16:11 NLT)

What’s in your closet?  My closet contains shirts, sweaters, coats, shoes, blankets, quilts, hats, luggage, and an assortment of puzzles and games.  Out of all the stuff that hangs or sits in my closet, not one single item is made from a single piece of material.  Every item is fashioned either from bits and pieces of fabric, leather, vinyl, or other materials. 

     My wife, Elaine, is an quilter.  Every one of her quilts is a collage of bits and pieces of fabric sewn together with perfectly placed seams.  If you were to ask to see one of her quilts, she would reply, “I don’t want anyone to see my mistakes.”  I have completed many counted cross stitch pictures and not one of them is perfect.  If you look close enough, you can see the imperfections.  It is easy to miscount and sometimes you can’t go back and undo the mistakes. 

     What is true of garments, quilts, and cross stitch pictures can also be applied to our lives as well.  None of us can claim to be seamless and perfect.  We are a collection of bits and pieces—broken relationships, shattered dreams, unfulfilled promises, dashed hopes, and sinful practices. 

     Jesus faced his share of trials and difficulties: brothers who denied his deity, religious leaders who accused him of blasphemy and plotted against him, one of his chosen disciples betrayed him, and one denied that he even knew him, while the rest ran away in a blatant act of desertion.  Yet, like us, Jesus took the bits and pieces of their lives and fashioned them into a worthy garment.  We are Jesus’s “Opus!”

      The only perfect seamless garment ever made was worn by Jesus at his trial and crucifixion.  It says in John 19:23, “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece.”  (NASB)  This seamless tunic was symbolic of his life—a life lived with perfection, a life uncomplicated by sin, a life void of bad choices, a life without broken dreams, and a life that was well pleasing to the Father.

     Jesus is the master tailor who is fashioning a perfect garment called—“You!”

Prayer: Dear Lord, take the bits and pieces of my life and fashion them in a way that will bring glory to your name.