Friday, February 24, 2012

Puzzles

My parents started my brother and me on puzzles at a very young age and I have loved them ever since. I like how all the colors and shapes mix together in the box just asking to be sorted and fit together. DSC01821

The easiest part of putting the puzzle together is finding all the edge pieces. The frame comes together rather quickly and I foolishly think, “Man, I am so good at putting puzzles together. I got this frame together so quickly! I’m sure I’ll be done with this baby in no time…” Then the real work begins. Looking at all the pieces clumped together gets to be a little daunting, but since I trust that all the pieces are there, and that they fit together, I dig in.

DSC01819Hands start sifting and turning all the pieces over right side up, separating them into piles that are similar in color. When that’s done, I usually just stare at all the pieces, pick here and there and realize this may take a little longer than I thought and maybe I’m not such a great puzzler after all… time for a break, lol.

I force myself to step away and do something else, but before long all the pieces laying strewn across our dining table call me back.

Getting that first piece of a group started is usually the hardest part. It’s so weird that I know all the pieces are there but it just takes a while to figure out how they all fit together. I usually don’t even look at the exact color that’s on the piece. Instead, I look for an odd shaped edge and find the partner. Little by littleDSC01820 I am able to figure out what goes where and to my surprise, sometimes the pieces were laying right by each other for a while, but until I got more of them in the right place, I just couldn’t see it. I also realize that many of the pieces I thought looked like the right color, are in the wrong group or that a piece I was searching for didn’t look anything like I thought it would.

While I was working on the puzzle tonight, I was thinking about how much of  life is that way. Our whole life is this puzzle, full of millions of pieces. When I try to make sense of them all, I usually get bewildered, but little by little God starts to DSC01822show me how the pieces fit together. Ah ha moments come and all I can think is, wow. There certainly are pieces of my life that look totally different than I would have originally thought, but the Lord is constantly putting things in order and making a beautiful picture. Sometimes things happen that we can’t imagine being able to fit into the puzzle of our lives and they might just lay there in our heart for a while, until one day, we see just how perfectly that piece does fit. One little grouping will come together and then we move to a new part of the picture of our lives and the process begins again.

If you are in a place in your life where you can’t imagine how the pieces could ever fit together, don’t give up; don’t get discouraged. It may take a while but God knows what the completed picture looks like and He never stops putting things together until it is totally finished.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:16

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16-17

3 comments:

Jen Price said...

I love doing puzzles! I did one while I was in labor with Joshua to pass the time.

One of the best "words" we ever got was comparing a season we were in to a puzzle and how God was fitting all the pieces together. I've never forgotten that and often think about that is so true most of the time.

Cindy said...

I am a puzzle lover too, for the reasons you reflect on - they are such a microcosm of life...The pieces eventually all fit together to make a beautiful picture...

thanks so much for sharing with us today!

Jennifer {Studio JRU} said...

I love puzzles! I have a big one that is testing my patience. lol Haven't worked on it for a while now. Such a beautiful thought to know that HE know what the completed picture looks like. I love that Jacqueline!