Teach me your ways, O Lord,
….that I may live according to your truth!
Grant me purity of heart,
….so that I may honor you. Psalm 86:11 NLT

John 17:22-26 (<<click here to read the passage)

I have a couple of friends that enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles. They will often post pictures of their completed efforts on Facebook. I have enjoyed them in the past, especially on those cold and long dark nights of winter. (Several years ago, I completed a puzzle that is a montage of lighthouses in the shape of a lighthouse. I glued it together and hung it in my office here at home.)

One of the biggest frustrations is to get to the very end and realize that there is a single piece missing! We search everywhere and cannot find it. And, at least for me, that was the end of it. I’d box it up, for what good was a puzzle that was missing a piece?

Well, recently I saw a video on how to recreate the missing piece! Several videos on YouTube will walk you through the whole process if that is your goal.

We can grasp a basic understanding that though the Heavenly Father is God, and Jesus Christ is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, that they are not three separate Gods but are all the same God. They are three in one.

In verse 23 of this passage Jesus speaks of His followers, both those with Him at that time and those to come – us! He refers to the unity that He and the Father share and His expectation that we too will share in that oneness. That verse reads,

I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected and completed into one, so that the world may know [without any doubt] that You sent Me, and [that You] have loved them, just as You have loved Me.

That is what is expected but, in reality, we don’t see it lived out too frequently. What caught my attention in this statement is that Jesus is praying that we may be perfected and completed into one. We are complex. We have all kinds of pieces and parts, and they are not just physical. Mental and spiritual aspects factor in as well.

And I will tell you this, if you are trying to be in unity with others, you will fail. Even people we love and would do anything for, grate on us over time, and far too often our unity begins to crumble. Our absolute only chance of succeeding in our efforts is to yield to Jesus’ control. Only in His strength, only through His love, only with His compassion and wisdom can we begin to be perfected and completed into one. Jesus is the missing piece of our huge mixed-up puzzle and no matter what we do we cannot replicate Him. We have to have the genuine article – Jesus Christ!

Oct 21st, 2021, Thurs,