Locum's Letter

Dear Friends,

Hanging on the wall of the guest room I occupied at the Bible Institute in Delhi where, five years ago, I gave a course of lectures on preaching to trainee pastors, were two framed jumbo jig-saws. One was of a thatched cottage and garden, the other of the Flying Scotsman pounding up a gradient and belching steam and smoke. Whether it was thought that these reminders of where I came from would make me feel more at home, I don’t know, but I learned that they were the work of the wife of the Principal of the Institute, who had a passion for jigsaws.

I myself was never a jigsaw enthusiast. However, it has often struck me that the work in which we engage as congregations of the church is not unlike making a jigsaw.

First, both require patience. How often the Scriptures bid us be patient in the service of God. Frustrations, disappointments, set-backs, and opposition are to be expected. Therefore the need for patience.

Hudson Taylor, the missionary who founded the China Inland Mission, once said: “There are three indispensable requirements for a missionary: 1. Patience. 2. Patience. 3. Patience.” The virtue of patience isn’t developed in a day. It follows that when we pray for patience, we shouldn’t expect God to answer our prayer immediately!

Then there are other connections between jigsaws and God’s work. In a jigsaw it is often difficult to see where the different pieces go, especially if you don’t have a picture to work from. Pieces which you thought belonged together, turn out not to fit. But it is also the case that, when you get one piece right, a lot of other pieces fall quickly into place. This is particularly true of the last piece. You may have already tried unsuccessfully to fit it into a number of places, but as the jigsaw nears completion, you find that the piece slots perfectly into the one remaining space, and the picture is complete.

As we go about the work God has given us to do, we seldom have before us a full picture of what God is doing. It is like making a jigsaw without the picture on the cover of the box to help us. We are unable to see the end from the beginning. Only God can. We are therefore totally dependent on him for guidance. Almost inevitably we will get some things wrong. We will try to fit things together which don’t belong. We will make assumptions which turn out to be incorrect. Our picture of how things should look may not be God’s picture. But if we make mistakes, and are humble enough to undo them when God points them out to us, we shall also, by God’s grace, get many things right as we are open and responsive to his Word and Spirit. We shall marvel at the way in which the picture takes shape as the different components come together and interlock to form a balanced composition.

Sometimes, of course, a jigsaw can’t be completed because there are pieces which are missing. Unless they are found, the picture will never be complete. The same is true of the box containing the church jigsaw. Pieces are missing. Empty pews tell the story.

Are you one of the missing pieces? In asking that, we mustn’t stretch the analogy too far, and suggest that the jigsaw of the church can’t be completed unless all the pieces are back in the box. The fact is that God will complete the picture with or without us. None of us is indispensable. That is the blunt truth which cuts us down to size. If we don’t want to be part of the jigsaw, God will shape others to take our place.

But that said, how much better when all the scattered pieces are gathered and the lost pieces found. Then everyone is part of the picture. Would this break in the story of St. John’s, when one chapter has closed and another is about to begin, not be an opportune time to get back into the picture?

Yours sincerely,

David Easton

Interim-Moderator and Locum