Just Another Block

"I need a red, six-piece block," Vince said.  He turned his attention to a large mound of Lego pieces of different colors and sizes.

As he sifted through the various blocks, he often would find a piece that was close and the discard it.  Finally, he found the right one and snapped it into place.

I must confess that to me, a stack of Lego pieces is pretty much worthless.  I can't build anything with the -- at least not without instructions.  I can't tell what pieces are usable for different things.

My son, Vince, can tell quickly what pieces he needs to build a variety of vehicles or, buildings.  The pieces stand out to him because he is a builder.  He knows his blocks, as silly as that may sound.

In a world as big as ours is, it is easy for us to feel lost as a single lego piece in a mound of seven billion lego pieces.  There is nothing that makes us truly special -- no way in which we are original, or will change the world.

In a sense, each one of is just a tiny sparrow in a huge flock of sparrows -- all chatting away and all of little worth.

Jesus said "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father... Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."  And so we are.  Not because of who we are, but because of who God is.  Somehow He can use even the squarest pegs, the smallest of sparrows, and even the oddest shaped Lego block.

It is not that we are the biggest block in the stack or, the most finely shaped, it is that the builder has a plan for us.  What is important is not who we are, but whose we are.

Our Heavenly Father looks down  into a pile of oddly shaped Lego pieces and recognizes us and knows us.  And lifting us gently from the stack, He gently places us in the place that He had planned the whole time.

For, we are valuable to Him and He loves each one of us as individuals.  In a world of seven billion, that is an amazing thing and blessing enough to lift the heart on the darkest of days.