
Introduction
I don’t get it! How do people do it? I mean those who don’t know Christ personally. How do they make sense of all this…this life thing? How do they answer all the endless mind twisting questions as to their existence? Am I created or am I just a piece of random chance? Do I have a purpose or am I just one of 8 billion specks of floating dust in the cosmos? What is right, what is wrong? Is there is even a right and a wrong and then who decides what they are? If I am here by the hand of randomness then why do I sense a fight between good and evil? What happens when I die…if I am here purely as a chance happening, then why do I feel in my heart there should more to this…to this life? Why do I seem to care so much if I have not been created for a purpose? If I sense a purpose, where is it coming from? These types of questions could fill endless pages. Again, I don’t get it. Do people just refuse to even think about these things?
My daughter Monique and I are putting together a Christmas puzzle. 1000 tiny pieces. They seem random. You should hear us freely vent our frustrations to each other as we attempt to put it together. And we have the complete picture as to what it is supposed to look like! How do you put life’s puzzle pieces together if you don’t have the picture of what it is supposed to look like? You can’t.
Let us give thanks to Father for His Love Plan. He set in motion on Christmas Day His plan to give us the answer as to what the picture of life is supposed to look like. And then He helps us put our unique life pieces slowly together to create something so very beautiful…our life with Him. What a puzzle designer He is!
Enjoy this letter to my father about making sense of the puzzle pieces of life.
This letter was written on December 21, 2018.
Making Sense of Life's Puzzle Pieces
Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and will call His
name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14
Good morning Pops,
The family is still sleeping here in our hotel in Times Square. We saw the play “Aladdin” last eve. Excellent. It brought great satisfaction to see my family laugh together and display great smiles as the play proceeded. They are my earthly joy and crown.
Now to Mr. Isaiah. This verse was written about 700 years before the actual birth of Jesus. Quite amazing. I am told there are 300 or so prophecies in the Old Testament that point to the birth, death and resurrection of the Savior to come. All of them were fulfilled by one person, Jesus Christ. Just a coincidence, riiiiiiiiight!!?
We can become so familiar with the story of the Christ Child born on Christmas Day that we lose perspective of the story. Both Cindy and I commented to each other just the other day, as we gazed at our beautiful Christmas tree, that for a person hearing the Christmas story for the first time, it is a kind of “out of this world” story. Really! It is the kind of story that might be too “far out” to be true for the deliberative factual thinker. The “story” goes hard against the grain of our natural humanistic tendencies. The litany of superhero movies making the rounds these past 10 years are evidence the we humans still like “far out” stories. But they don’t do anything for us unless they are true.
For the nation of Israel, they had been prepared for the Bethlehem event. For hundreds of years, prophets had been uttering the predictions of the Christ’s impending arrival. They should have not been surprised by His birth. If fact they weren’t surprised at all…they entirely missed it all together!
Jesus flatly told the Jewish leaders that He had come to fulfill their predictive scriptures. They should have slapped their foreheads saying, “Ayyiyi, you are right, you Jesus, are the one for-told of for ages now. We believe you.” But not being truth seekers, they missed it entirely..….again!
For us in this age, being a truth seeker is the one key ingredient needed to recognizing the Truth of the Christmas story. We have to admit, for the God and Creator of the Universe to reach down and provide a path of redemption for His creation, the plan would have to be a little “out there.” And so, it is.

We are told, “No one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws them...” John 6:44 NKJV. What is the prerequisite for the Holy Spirit to “draw” one to seeing and understanding of the Truth, that is Jesus? Being a truth seeker. Picture an intricate puzzle with thousands of unique pieces. Those pieces are of no value unless you know what the completed picture is supposed to look like. Being a “truth seeker” is the one who cries out, “Please, please, I just want to make sense of this puzzle. I know in my gut that there is an answer to this ‘life’ puzzle thing. Just tell me what the whole picture looks like, pleeeezzz!” Their mind and heart are open to an answer outside of themselves. They also realize the path they are on, on their own, is leading nowhere. Their personal puzzle pieces are making no sense. Then the “truth seeker,” upon hearing the good news of Jesus, with the help and grace of the Holy Spirit, receives the epiphany of clarity. “Why yes, yes, this Jesus is my answer. He’s the picture I have been looking for all along. He is my way, He is the way, He is the Truth. Now I choose to believe.” And now finally everything makes sense, the puzzle pieces become the beautiful creation as the designer intended.
Yes, a child was born. Born to a virgin. The actual Son of God was inside her. And on Christmas Day, this Son came to live amongst us. He was born to die on a cross, taking with Him the penalty for our sin. He died, spent three days in Hell (death) and on the third day was resurrected to new life. He now rules at the right hand of His Father God. And only through belief in Him do we find saving redemption from our own personal sin. And when we do “believe,” He gives the power for us to become a child of this same Father God and have the assurance of eternal life with Jesus in Heaven.
Far out there? Yes, absolutely. But for this truth seeker it is the “Way and the Life,” it is the answer that makes the puzzle crystal clear. Thank you Father for Christmas Day in Bethlehem.
“The message of the cross is foolish to those headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18 NLT
Love you Pops!
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It’s the picture on the box that affirms the direction of our hearts
Love this, Steve, I’m going to forward it to my family. Maybe they’ll read it and maybe they won’t, but it is such a great writing to ponder that I pray they will. Love and Merry Christmas to you and your family
Vicki C