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In Old Testament times before Jesus was born when someone heard a prophet speak or read from a scroll of scripture they may have found some of the information about the coming Messiah confusing. The small nuggets of information reveled about where the Messiah would come from and live probably seemed random and just a little conflicting. One prophet would say the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, then they would hear He would be a Nazarene, and then that He would come from Egypt.

Through the course of many many years God reveled specific facts through various prophets about the coming Messiah. A small piece of the puzzle here and one there, through this person, then through that person. Small seemingly random pieces of God's master rescue plan. Without all the pieces in place it may have seemed quite confusing, even conflicting.

One may come away wondering "would the Messiah be Nazarene or a resident of Bethlehem or was the coming Messiah going to be an Egyptian?"

I often see various things in my life that seem random, confusing, and even conflicting and wonder how does this all fit together. I examine situations in my life or those close to me and question why. Why Lord? it doesn't make sense. Why am I like this or that? Why did this happen, or that? Why am I not like this, or that? How do these things work together, fit together? What is God's plan for me, for my family? How does all this stuff, my personality traits, my interests, life situations, failures, successes, friends, and family fit together in my life? How is all this stuff going to come together to be God's will for me?

My need to have all of the pieces of my life together and worked out so I understand completely simply gets in the way of my faith in God. My need to know just how it all fits together distorts my faith somewhat.

I have seen glimpses of the puzzle. I have looked back at things that have happened and seen a few of the pieces fitted together. I have seen why this or that took place and why I am have a certain personality trait. In hindsight I have seen God use my fears, and misguided words and actions to arrive at His will for me at a certain point in time. These glimpses encourage me. They remind me that God is at work.

Philip Yancey has such a way with words. He writes in his book "Disappointment with God" that "Faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse."

God is at work and instead of needing to know all the details of the plan, the pieces of the puzzle, I just need to trust Him today. Grab hold of what I know today, follow Christ, and trust God as puts all the pieces together.