Only a piece

As a church, we are reading daily through the book of Exodus. I was reading this morning in the fifth chapter and I was struck by something. Exodus 5:22-23 says: 

Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."

The New International Version ends this passage with a period, but I can only imagine that Moses was a tad more emphatic! "You have not rescued your people AT ALL!!!" Moses was upset! God had shown him all these great signs and told him that He was going to deliver His people through Moses, and now the people were mad at Moses because things had gotten harder for them, not easier. Moses obeyed God, and things did not go the way Moses expected them to. He forgot that he only had a small piece of the puzzle. God gave him a general overview of what His plan was and Moses concluded things would go a certain way. When they didn't, he became indignant, but God knew all along what He was doing because He could see the whole picture clearly.
Sometimes God gives us instructions and we obey, only to find that what we expected to get better actually gets worse and we wonder why in the world God lied to us!! He didn't. We just weren't looking at the whole picture. We may never get to see the whole picture, but God, in His infinite wisdom, ALWAYS knows best.
My sister-in-law's best friend is losing her four year old beautiful boy to a brain tumor. Tragic. Terrible. Heart-wrenching. How can we make sense of a terrible tragedy such as this? We can't. We cannot fathom how this could be part of a beautiful picture.
Jason's grandpa just passed away last week, leaving an emptiness in this world that no one else will ever be able to fill. His wife now faces life without her companion at her side. How is this beautiful? How does this puzzle piece make sense? It doesn't, because we don't have all the other pieces that go along with it.
My new friend Corrie was just diagnosed with lobular breast cancer and just underwent an axillary dissection. She is thirty-five and has two children, ages 13 and 9. How is this part of God's perfect plan? How do they make sense of that? I don't think they can.
But in all these cases, there are so many more pieces that will ultimately fit together into God's perfect will. I cannot explain it, but I know it. Because of this, when I face the giants of life, I can trust that I am seeing a mere microcosm of the eternal plan and that the One Who set all things in motion will ultimately use all of this pain and heartache for good.
 

And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those you love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28.