Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Word Search Puzzles

 

“This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”

Matthew 13:13-15

 


I like word search puzzles.

My son and daughter have both gifted me word search puzzle books.

One time they purchased one at the Dollar Tree.

I breezed through it because nearly every word was in either the vertical or horizontal plane and were very easy to locate.

I am usually more challenged by words that are concealed diagonally – must just be the way my brain is wired.

Parables are much like word search puzzles.

Instead of words hidden in plain sight, a parable has truth hidden in plain sight.

The truth Jesus sought to convey by way of story or illustration reminds me of the diagonal words that mock me as I search diligently to locate them.  

They are there, just beyond my understanding.

Then the Holy Spirit steps in and brings the illumination needed to understand and apply the truth.

But you have to want to know the truth and put it into practice.

That’s that idea of hungering and thirsting for the things of God.

Any puzzle, no matter how easy or difficult, is never solved if it just sits on the shelf in the pages of the book.

The truths Jesus taught through parables are the same.

Are you hungry for the truth?

 

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