Sometimes You Gotta Lego

“We didn’t fight for this land; we didn’t work for it—it was a gift! You gave it, smiling as you gave it, delighting as you gave it.” – Psalm 44 MSG

“It’s always in the last place you look.” Of course it is – anybody who finds something and then keeps looking for it, few pixels short of a QR code.

Anyway, this week the middlest boy and I put together a Lego model, seen above. Will admit assembling a model is a lot more satisfying than digging through a cardboard box looking for the next piece while an almost-six-year-old tells you “I know where the next piece goes if you ever find it!”

Will also admit that sometimes almost-six-year-olds think they’ve put the pieces together correctly and then several steps later discover things no longer fit right because he didn’t so much.

Couple mornings ago I was up before him and since we’d discovered the day before that something was improperly assembled, meaning we had to tear down and rebuild, figured I’d get that sussed out so that when he got up we could move forward. Made with the sussing, rebuilt, started gathering pieces for Step 10 and discovered I only had one of two necessary black 2×6 plates.

Rummaged (quietly, people sleeping) through the cardboard box. Rummaged again. Rummaged a third time. Sifted through all of the pieces, one handful at a time, making a pile on the edge of the table.

No second black 2×6 plate.

Couple years ago Cousin Zachary, now a teenager, donated his old Lego to the boys and there’s a very good chance several plates of the type I needed were in the Big Random Lego box upstairs. Figured I could snag one of those and move on with my life but first I’d shove all the sifted Lego back in the box.

One round gray barrel piece escaped, fell to the floor as things do.

(Stick with me; this is going somewhere.)

I finished getting the rest of the pieces into the box and bent to pick up the cheeky gray barrel.

Which was not on the floor at my feet.

Round things roll; it was probably close by.

So I got down on hands and knees to look.

Several minutes went by while I did.

We’ll leave me there in my increasingly frustrated search to check in about Writing; still not doing any. Besides this weekly blog. And last Saturday while I filmed two dance recitals and listened to several sermons on the life of Joseph, God encouraged me in my faithfulness.

Many people, the minister said, will be stalwart and forthright and bold for a little while. Couple days, few weeks, a month or two but if nothing happens, if nothing changes the majority will fall by the wayside. Long-term faithfulness of the type Joseph evidenced is not terribly common.

I mean the guy’s evil brothers sold him into slavery, which was, let’s remember, a huge upgrade from the initial plan of murder—then the wife of the guy that bought him lies about him, gets him thrown in Egyptian prison—then he interprets the dream of Pharoah’s cupbearer, asks the guy to remember him and his unjust plight when he’s restored to Big P’s throne room and for two full years the guy forgets him.

And yet.

Not one word in any verse in the whole of Scripture indicating Joseph complained, despaired, pouted, grieved, kicked against the goads.

He waited on the fulfillment of God’s prophesy for years if not decades patiently. Did what God had set before him to do and trusted the Almighty.

It’s not the same. I’m not saying it’s the same but I am saying last week as I remembered Joseph’s faithfulness the Holy Spirit nudged my shoulder, reminding me that when I say “I’m not writing” that’s not accurate.

I’m not writing a novel.

I’m not writing a screenplay.

But you’re reading the results of the writing I’m doing faithfully, week in, week out, closing in on five years of blog posts with roughly a dozen dedicated readers. (And, as per usual, may God bless each and every one of you!)

A dozen? After five years?

By worldly standards ‘The Story So Far’ is pathetic. Laughable. A dismal failure. And most folks, even dedicated, God-fearing, spiritually oriented folks would have quit.

I have not.

I’m not praising myself; it’s not a burden to be here every week, I like writing this blog and if only me and God were paying attention that would be enough.

But that prophesy from last August, Sister Betty kicked off with “Blog blog blog” (knowing nothing about me personally) and I have. At the time I wondered if my breakout might come from someone finding this little basically unnoticed thing and it still may.

But for the better part of five years, setting aside the big projects, I’ve been faithful.

I’ve shown Him, I’m showing Him right now that I can and will be faithful in little.

And we know what happens to those folks.

I was blessed to be reminded and encouraged of my faithfulness and as I scrambled around on the floor after that durn gray barrel piece (worried I’d forgotten? Perish the thought) I was reminded of His faithfulness.

Because unbeknownst to me but certainly beknownst to God that second black 2×6 plate, the necessary one to complete Step 10 out of 20 to make the truck seen above

was on the ground.

By the window.

Probably knocked off the table the day before when we didn’t realize.

I had searched the box thoroughly which was time wasted because what I wanted wasn’t there.

God knew where it was, and those who think He has better things to do than direct the little gray barrel piece under a leg of the piano (?!) so that I’d have to really look for it and in so doing find the thing I didn’t know I needed to be looking for…

Could read their Bibles. Verse in there about sparrows.

Wrote 96% of this two days ago; just now right before I read through to tighten up the screws, release this one into the world I was reading Psalm 46. Three times the author repeats ‘Jacob-wrestling God fights for us; Yahweh of the angel armies protects us.’ (MSG) Once is enough; three times and we’re supposed to really pay attention.

The same God who commands hundreds of thousands of angels, holds the universe in the palm of His hand, (scripture about that too) bothered to stop by and rassle with one human one night.

And He’ll fight for us. Protect us. If we’ll let Him.

I used to tell the 5^th/6^th graders at church that if it matters to them it matters to Him.

May I never fail to respect His majesty, His power, His sovereignty.

Yet may I never forget that I’m worth more than many sparrows.

As are you, Best Beloved

‘I pray that, according to the riches of His glory, He may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through His Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.’ -Ephesians 3:17, NKJV

‘ “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who wish His hand has fulfilled what He promised with His mouth to David my father…”’ – 2 Chronicles 6, ESV

Don’t forget to write