Sunday, March 14, 2021

The Puzzle of Life

 I cam across this quote recently, and it really resonated with me.  

If you can trust a puzzle company to make sure every piece is in the box to complete the puzzle, then why can't you trust God that every piece of your life is there for a reason?

I love puzzles, whether jigsaw or not.  I like the challenge of taking a bunch of seemingly random pieces and seeing them take shape.  I enjoy the thrill of putting in the final piece, or the joy of finally finding the right place for that stubborn piece that looked like it was in the wrong puzzle box!  I've frantically searched for missing pieces that seemingly vanished and leave the puzzle unfinished (maybe they went to the place that missing socks live?!).  I've placed pieces where I thought they fit, then discovered the piece that truly fits and had to change what I thought was complete.

What an amazing analogy for life!!!!!

Well, okay, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, which actually makes it all the more relatable.  It's frustrating when you realize a piece that seemingly fit is not where it's meant to be.  It's beyond aggravating when you have a piece that doesn't seem to go ANYWHERE and you're sure it was a mistake by the puzzle makers.  

See any correlations to life?

It's disheartening when your 'vision' for your life doesn't seem to match the pieces you have.  Or worse, when you think you finally have the pieces of life falling into place, only to realize they don't fit AT ALL like you had them, and you just can't see how they're supposed to go.  It's tempting to give up, to sweep the pieces back into the box and ignore the reality of the broken mess.

And yet . . . God is trustworthy, especially with the puzzles of our lives.

When you look closely at a puzzle piece from a 1,000 piece puzzle (or bigger), it may not have any discernable markings, but it does have a specific role; a role that only it can fulfill.  So it is with the pieces of our lives; we can't always see the purpose or even how it could ever fit into God's plan for our life.  Thankfully, the finished product does not rely on our limited and sometimes clouded vision to achieve the big picture.  We can spend hours (days, months, years) trying to make a piece fit where it doesn't belong only to come back with fresh eyes and immediately spot the correct place for it.  Or sometimes we require help from a trusted friend to give us a different view that fits our current reality.  But always, always, we can place our faith in God.  Even when the pieces of our life seem to be from no less than 5 different puzzles, we can trust that God's plan will unfold in the proper time, using all of the pieces to create the story of our life.

So the next time you are tempted to believe that your life's puzzle is missing a few pieces or that you have the wrong pieces to complete your vision, talk to the puzzle-maker - God.  Trust that He has seen the final product and it is designed for your eternal happiness.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
nor are your ways my ways—oracle of the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
my thoughts higher than your thoughts."
~Isaiah 55:8-9

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