Puzzle Pieces
Life is like a big puzzle.
As a Christian, the beginning of your walk with the Lord is much like dumping out a 10,000 piece puzzle onto your table. The pieces are scattered. The picture is broken. The prospect of putting this thing together seems a daunting task.
Yet, there's excitement... and there's a very distinct goal: put the pieces together and make a beautifully whole picture.
Some pieces are upside down. Others are right-side up. They're all probably quite misplaced, but the right pieces are there. A puzzle starts as the exact opposite of "put together." Yet, the Bible gives us a picture of what our lives should look like... and so, we start to look for those puzzle pieces that fit together, working to create in our own lives a picture that looks like the one painted for us in scripture.
Sometimes you find the pieces that fit perfectly together. You search, you find, and you make forward progress. Other times, you simply can't find the right pieces, and you find yourself frustrated. Day by day though, you attempt to see more clearly what the big picture is... and you do this by putting all those tiny broken pieces together. One. At. A. Time.
You work systematically, trying to organize all the scattered pieces into their respective "piles" of coordinating colors. But what happens when your arm slips and the part you've been working on for a while falls off the edge of your table? You may experience disappointment. Perhaps grief. Maybe it wasn't even your arm that bumped the pieces off the table; maybe it was someone else's misstep! And that can be even more frustrating.
But the big question is this: how do you respond to the scattered pieces of the puzzle? Do you give up? Find a new hobby? Become angered? Work on a different part? Start over? Pick up the fallen pieces?
Whatever the case, we pause. Our brains have to process, formulate a response, and keep moving (...in one direction or the other). Ideally, we pick up the scattered pieces and start again with a cheerful attitude.
And, as we strive towards the goal of "finishing," we learn to surrender. We need to ask for help when we can't find the pieces that fit. And although we look forward to the day when all the pieces will be "put together," trusting that the final picture will be beautiful even when we only catch little glimpses of the shapes and colors can be hard. But in reality, in our Christian walks, this won't happen until we enter eternity. Knowing that, how can we live among the scattered puzzle pieces? What should our attitudes be?
Our attitudes should be those of hope. Here are some practical ways I find helpful in trying to have a hopeful attitude when I get caught up in the little pieces of the puzzle and forget about the big picture:
1. Spending time in God's Word allows us to see more of what God wants our final "picture" to look like.
2. Prayer time allows us to talk to God about all those broken pieces - and about those few that also fit together.
3. Remember and take time to simply think about how God is the one who takes broken pieces and puts them back together.
There's a song that says, "you picked up all my pieces, put me back together, you are the defender of my heart." I love how this resonates with the idea of life as a puzzle. If you have a few minutes to listen to it, I highly encourage you to do so, remembering that God sees the big picture, and He is there to help you put the broken pieces of your life back together. One at a time.
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"Wisdom is not the ability to comprehend life's puzzle; it is not knowing how to make everything fit. Wisdom is trusting God when - especially when - all the pieces go missing." - Joni Eareckson Tada
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"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6
