Chicken or Egg; Picture or Frame

What comes first?

For my birthday this year a friend gave me a BIG pad entitled, “Brilliant Ideas”. It was the perfect gift for me, an idea person. So far five pages remind me of my thoughts, my ideas, my dreams. It's giving me a glimpse of what my future might look like.

This summer is a transition time for my husband and me. We’re enjoying a sabbatical and pondering how best to steward who God created us to be for the rest of our lives. So the ideas are recorded on my new BIG pad, not acted on; and many will be discarded.

Two pictures help me wait patiently to see which ideas will come to fruition. One is a jigsaw puzzle. When I work on a jigsaw puzzle (which is one of my Christmas activities), I always do the perimeter first. That framework guides the placement of the inside pieces. The frame helps avoid frustration.

The second picture is the small get-away cabin Bill and I built in the mountains this past year. The framing is the essential and primary piece of the cabin that holds everything together. Without the framing, there would be nothing to guide the electric wires; to anchor the walls; to give boundaries to the insulation and much more.

The frame is essential: to finish a jig-saw puzzle; to build a cabin; to know which ideas fit best within the context of our next contribution. The frame must come first.

I can get quite excited about some of my ideas. One morning I heard God whisper, Sue, you have the picture before the frame. You won't know which ideas are good ideas until the framework is in place.

So I record my ideas; wait, ponder, pray. “God what is the big picture you have planned out for us for our next season?”  Right now I'm letting my ideas be ideas. When the frame is clear, the ideas fall into place.

“The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; …”

Psalm 16:6, ESV
"Now you've got my feet on the life path, ..."
Psalm 16:11, The Message