How to put it all together?

Couple of weeks ago I helped my friend to assemble her new workstation which she bought online. I really thought it would be easy and straightforward, as the desks with a few shelves looked very simple on the picture. I have assembled many pieces of furniture in the past and felt quite confident with this little job. How big was my surprise when opening the flat pack with the screws, bars and wooden parts of the workstation, revealed that the instruction of how to put it all together is written in Chinese language only. It’s OK, I thought, don’t panic, just look for it online, there is a QR code which will for sure leads you to the website showing the description in English. Unfortunately, it was not the right solution. Searching for the product online and trying to find the instruction took a while and brought us no luck. My friend and I thought, Ok, we will just follow the pictures without any explanation, but the problem appeared to be not resolved even then, because there was no sequence of steps in any numerical order and only some parts were shown while other were missing. The job, which we expected to complete in an hour, took us over four hours till late evening. In the process we made mistakes, had moments of feeling like giving up, had a lot of laughs and chuckles and made right and wrong decisions as to what fits with what and where. The workstation assembled by us turned out to be functional and nice looking, but not perfect. A few screws were missing in the pack, and a few holes were not in the right places. But my friend loved the final product and now uses it for her work every day.

The above story reminds me a lot of some experiences of God in my life. Faith in God seems to be simple, straightforward, easy to apply in life. But the implementation of God’s love brings too often surprises which are unpredictable and certainly bigger that one could expect. When I think about seeking God’s grace, I sometimes feel like the instruction of finding God is given to me in a foreign language. I feel that not only patience is required to find it, but a lot of resilience in getting through the process of following God’s teaching. And this process still include making mistakes, re-doing things which do not work in the first place. Seeking and finding God’s grace brings joy and frustration at the same time and certainly does not lead to perfection in human expectations, rather helps me to understand how all pieces of my life fit together when filtered through God’s lenses.

Last week I read a reflection written by Sr Hilda Scott OSB, in which she talked about God’s grace. Grace is a person – Our Lord Jesus Christ, she wrote. Whatever you are carrying, pay attention to it today and then stand back and accept every offer of help, consolation, forgiveness and healing. Be open to the grace that will make you a source of grace for someone else. (Grace – Lenten Program, DOW 2020)

I strongly believe that finding God’s grace is finding Jesus, finding Him in our life’s imperfection, in all attempts to understand God’s message and live it in our own life. Consequently, being His messenger for others, even if it is as small as helping in assembling the furniture.

Have a good week ahead, everyone.

Sr Grace