Are you a bit frustrated, perhaps even hopeless, feeling blind to any meaning of your life? Ever think you had it all figured out and then life threw you a curveball, totally disorienting you and leaving you more confused than ever? What is the purpose of your life? My life? Our lives.

Will you stick with me as we take a seeming rabbit trail? This past spring, my daughter participated in a high school musical production of Beauty and the Beast. She had the highly honored and deeply coveted role of…drumroll…a spoon. Though she is truly a flexible, contented young lady, mature beyond her years, she immediately expressed disappointment to me. While she did not expect a main role, the minor role of a spoon was initially hard to accept. During the four performances, the majority of her time was spent waiting around backstage, which was challenging to be unable to see the full show, even though she knew the storyline well.

Beauty and the Beast is clearly not about spoons. Yet, how is the drama impacted if the spoons were eliminated? However, if you were literally only a spoon and lacked knowledge of any other aspect of the story, how exciting to you is the story really? To be truly impressive, moving, and make the full impact on the audience, Beauty and Beast requires all the roles and the entire storyline from beginning to end to be presented.

Transitioning to the next seeming rabbit trail, let me tell you about my experience listening to the exposition of the book of Genesis. Week after week, the constant refrain from the various pastors was that God was the hero of that first book in the canon of scripture. Not Abraham. Lot. Isaac. Jacob. Or even Joseph. Only God. Recently, a wise woman asked me who was the main character in my own story. She informed me it was also God. I was a supporting role. Just like the Genesis patriarchs.

Metaphorically speaking, God has written a musical, and it is now being performed live. The main role is His and His alone. While He is totally sufficient without anyone else on stage with Him, the story and all the myriad of supporting roles glorify Him. Magnify Him. Elevate Him.

Take the supporting role of Joseph for instance. His role revealed God’s power to sustain the rejected falsely accused prisoner for years and then suddenly exalt him literally overnight and use him to save the world and the line of the Messiah. Without Joseph, God is still glorious. Yet, with Joseph, God is even more visibly glorious. The supporting role magnifies, highlights, and underscores the already existing glory of God.

Like us, Joseph was a “spoon.” For thousands of years, he has been backstage. For those last two years in prison when he was technically “on stage,” he had no idea what the next scene was. For all he knew, he was going to waste away in that distressing Egyptian prison until his final breath. The details of the storyline were imperceptible to him. Trusting the Storyteller was his calling. Our calling. Faithfully performing his role as it was slowly revealed to him from that of a son, to a slave, to a prisoner, to second in command was his responsibility. His purpose. Our responsibility. Our purpose.

We, like Joseph, have not been given access to the full script. The most basic story arc is all that has been revealed to us. God created humans and wants relationship with them. God’s archenemy, Satan, made a deadly attack on that relationship. One day God will fully rectify the situation, and those who have trusted and feared Him will be back in perfect fellowship with Him forever. The end. (Only there is no end to the story. Only eternity. Mind blowing.)

I Corinthians 10:31 succinctly describes our purpose in this way: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Matthew 5:16 echos the idea: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Our purpose is to utilize our supporting role to point to the Main Role.

As the God-authored timeless tale written before the foundation of the earth plays out in real time, will we accept and embrace our minor part as a “spoon?” To clarify, my daughter did wholeheartedly engage her small part and was the best spoon on stage (though I may be slightly biased). She radiated. Others even commented to me that she clearly gave her all to her role. Will we now do the same?