One of my favorite memories with my oldest child is putting jigsaw puzzles together. Early on, I discovered her love of puzzles. We started with the big chunky wooden puzzles and moved on to cardboard puzzles with more pieces. She caught on quickly and was soon doing puzzles without help from me.
I was looking for something to do on Christmas and thought it would be fun for the family to work on a puzzle this Christmas. Also, we could start a new family tradition for Christmas day. Only Abby, my oldest, and I were interested in this activity. So, while I was preparing dinner and putting it in the oven, she and I began a new puzzle.
We started by taking all the pieces out and sorting out the frame. Admittedly, Abby did a lot of this work while I was cooking. Time wore on, and the border was almost complete. She looked at the box top and decided what area she wanted to work on next. I kept popping in and out and needed a strategy for working on the puzzle. I just took random pieces and tried to help. I sorted pieces according to color. I tried to put some pieces together. Some looked like they would fit, but looks can be deceiving, and they did not go together. Back into the pile, they would go. Abby was making significant progress with her strategy. I was getting discouraged. Nothing I was doing was working. I wanted to give up. She was excited to keep going. She stopped what she was doing and came over and helped me. That encouraged me because I was no longer alone trying to make sense of random puzzle pieces.
As I was sitting there looking at the same handful of pieces, I thought about how this is how my life is. I have several of the “pieces” of the puzzle of my life. I know they all fit together, but I cannot figure out how. I can force pieces together because it makes sense that they should go together, but it is not the perfect fit. I keep trying on my own, only to be discouraged when it does not work out.
Abby would get so excited when she had success with her pieces. I was sitting near her, and I could see her progress and hear her excitement. At times this only further discouraged me. I was happy she was doing well but frustrated with my progress. Sometimes I feel this way in life. Someone near me may be having great success, and everything falls into place. I am very happy for them. However, when I look at how I am doing, I may get discouraged because I still have all these pieces of my life floating around, and I am not making progress in putting them together. We are all involved in each other’s lives. When my friends do well, I can rejoice with them. We are blessed to have people to go through life with and should celebrate everyone’s successes. Eventually, I started to have success on my section of the puzzle. And Abby was encouraging me in my success. Ultimately, we all see how the pieces of life fit together.
The thing to remember is to keep going and not give up. God has a plan and a purpose for each of us. It is up to God on the timing or how our life pieces fit together, not us. We like to think we are in charge, but we are not. The Bible has many references to God being in control and not us. A couple examples are Proverbs 16: 9, which states, “In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. And Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
I realized that Abby had more success than me because she was looking at the picture on the box. I could have looked at the box top, but I thought I knew what I was doing. Having the picture helped her sort pieces, so she knew the general area they belonged. Then she could look for similar puzzle pieces. Once she had pieces that went together and the general idea of where they belonged, it all fell into place. I don’t have the “box top” for my life. But I know the One who does, and I need to look to him for revelation. If I look to God, the author of how all the pieces of my life will fit together perfectly, I will not become as discouraged, and I will be able to keep going on the days that nothing seems to work together.
Once I started looking at the box top, I had more success. I could even find some of the missing pieces for sections Abby had almost completed. I thought about how God can use us to complete a work that he has started in someone else. We are not alone on our journey; sometimes, we need others to come alongside us. And sometimes we need to help other people. Abby and I had so much fun working on this jigsaw puzzle. It can be this way in life also. We can have more fun if we allow others to come alongside us and join us on the journey.
We finished the puzzle. However, when we finished, we realized two pieces were missing. It was poetic with my reflections on my puzzled life. I am missing parts of my life, but God sees the whole and will fill in anything missing in His time. We can be confident of this because of the promise in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.“ It is okay to have missing pieces and allow God to fill the void in His timing. Putting puzzles together is a process. Sometimes long and discouraging and sometimes quick and easy. Regardless of how long it takes, piece by piece, our lives become a complete picture.
Each experience and day are a piece of the puzzle of our life. We can’t see what a day holds, but we, as children of God, know the One who has completed the picture of our life. We are working to fit the pieces together with his Spirit to guide and help us. God is our perfect puzzle expert. He sees how everything fits together. God has already seen the beautiful, complete picture of our journey. He has the “box top” and knows where each piece fits. He may work on our borders and then move on to other areas of our lives. Sometimes our life may seem chaotic because God is moving around and working on different sections leading to a complete picture. My role is to be patient and willing to wait for him to collect the pieces to work on the puzzle.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Abby working on our Christmas day puzzle. There were frustrations and setbacks, but each delay was worth it. I got quality time with my daughter. I also got personal growth in learning not to give up and quit when the process was not going my way. I want to thoroughly enjoy time spent with God as he works on putting my pieces together to complete his plan for my life. I am confident that any delays and setbacks will be worth it when I allow God to be in charge of the timing of the complete picture.
Peace in the Desert 