One thing I absolutely love about being a father is seeing how different, how special and how unique each of my children are. Josiah, our eldest, is so creative and so intuitive that he absolutely amazes me! He is only eight years old but the questions and perspective that comes out of him can absolutely leave me dumb founded. Just the other day, we were driving by an empty building in the city and he looked at it and said to us, “Hey Mom & Dad, that would be a great place to have our church!” We turned around and said the typical adult response, which was to remind him that those type of things cost a lot of money….blah…blah…blah! His response back to us not only amazed me but put me in my place. He said, “Dad, if God can provide a stove for us, a van for us, clothes for us, and food for us, why would He not give us that building?” Wow!! The faith of a child.

Hannah is our beautiful princess who is a born leader. She stands for truth and seems to always have a little following everywhere she goes. Caleb, is our “funny man”! He can make me laugh all day long! He is also our sensitive one. He cares deeply and he loves deeply! He kind of reminds me of someone…ummm. Gracie, is our little toddler that is so full of energy and life! She loves the spotlight, loves to entertain and has the cutest smile on the planet! On top of that, the way that she says “Papa” is just so adorable, it completely melts me! Our last baby is just itching to get out of Mommy’s tummy and see us all. We are 1 week away from the big due date and we are all waiting with anticipation! One thing that I have come to realize is that all of my children are so unique, yet they fit together as a family unit in such an amazing way!

One night, a little while ago, while I was playing with my kids, my youngest son Caleb brought out his favourite thing to play with: a puzzle. He loves puzzles! He could spend all day playing with them! That night, as he placed all of the puzzle pieces on the floor and began to stare intently at the picture on the box, a thought hit me. If my four year old son can be so focused, purposeful and passionate about the placing of each unique piece into the puzzle’s grand design, how much more is God, in relation to the strategic placement of His children into each church family?

Think about a puzzle for a second. Every piece is unique! There are no two pieces that are alike in shape or in colour. Every piece has to be placed in connection with the other pieces around it or it won’t fit properly! Only 4 pieces get to be those special corner pieces that can hold everything else together. In order to complete the puzzle we have to look to the picture given to us from the beginning in order to complete it properly.

Understand today that your unique design is important! Finding where your unique design fits in to the Body of Christ is even more important! You are needed! Your gifts are needed! Without you our puzzle will not be complete!