“You are shaped by God to be part of the picture” 

 We all have a purpose. How do we work out that purpose?

A single piece of puzzle is not much to look at. A single piece of a puzzle is quite useless because it serves no purpose on its own. For your puzzle piece to serve any purpose whatsoever you must use it to link up with others to complete the puzzle.

The same goes for the gifts and talents that God has given you. Paul says, “There are varieties of gifts, … and to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Now in order to complete any puzzle, you don’t have to be a professional “puzzler.” All that is required is that you have all the pieces. I suggest that this puzzle represents the world. Each piece, being a different shape, size and colour represents a different spiritual gift, skill or talent that God has given to each of us.  Just like the different colours and shapes of this puzzle, we all have different spiritual gifts and skills, different God-given gifts… and we are made up of all sorts of sizes and shapes, but together we form the very thing that God desires –  the body of Christ!  I think it is incredible that individually we are all diverse, but collectively we make up the picture that the world sees of God and Jesus.

In a jigsaw puzzle, each piece has a unique shape and plays an important part in building the complete picture. It is the same with Christians. Each member of the Church has a unique shape. Each one of us has a special role in building God’s Family.

It is my responsibility to “ask, seek and knock” until I find out what my spiritual gifts are. God has made you and me part of God’s Family so that we can use our unique spiritual gifts “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4: 12 – 13).  Then, through Jesus at work in us, God will transform the world!

Each person is shaped by God to be part of God’s picture for the world. Each person belongs and can exercise their belonging through answering God’s call and purpose for their lives. As you can see we are using the acronym of S.H.A.P.E.