As I looked at the tiling in the kitchen, I was reminded once again of how much I love tessellated shapes (where one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, are fitted together with no overlaps and no gap.)
I love hexagons because they fit together so well:
Lots of tiles actually use tessellated patterns on them to make them look prettier:
I suppose I like tessellation because I like order and symmetry; I like things to fit together neatly and without mess. And I’d very much like this process to extend to life as well: neat, tidy, ordered, no mess, no leftover bits!
Sadly, I haven’t found life to be always like that. Nor is the church like that, for the church is made up of people of differing ages, temperaments and giftings. The church is made up of people who ‘like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’ (1 Pet 2:5 TNIV). If you look at old church buildings, the stones are individual and are not all the same shape or size, yet they are fitted together to make an amazing edifice that has often stood the test of time.
Some tessellated shapes are much more complicated than squares, diamonds or hexagons. I always think of the church a little like this image, more like a jigsaw puzzle of shapes that don’t apparently fit together at all!
Proverbs 27:17 TNIV says ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.’ We refine each other, knocking off corners and edges so that we fit together. This process is not painless. Sometimes we don’t like the people God has placed us with, but just as we cannot choose the members of our natural families, so we cannot choose our brothers and sisters in Christ! God chooses us (John 15:16 TNIV) and builds us together like living stones. One day we will all fit together perfectly, as perfectly as any tessellated shape. Bear that in mind during the day’s sharpenings!