The Puzzle

Many times I have heard the analogy comparing life to a jigsaw puzzle. We have all these pieces to put together – family, friends, work, community, church – with the most famous piece being God. The puzzle isn’t complete without the God piece in it. I have begun to think about my “life puzzle” a bit differently.

I feel scattered – like a jigsaw puzzle scattered across the floor. A puzzle with a zillion pieces: kids, husband, school, money, bills, church, house, meals, laundry, karate, teaching, writing, studying, relationships. And these are just the kinds of the pieces; within each kind are many individual pieces. My mind is divided amongst all of these randomly shaped pieces, scattered across time (45 years) and space (everywhere I have ever been).

Because I am in the pieces I cannot see the whole puzzle. I haven’t got the box top that shows me the completed picture. I can’t even see the whole pile of pieces. Oh, and did I mention that there are some pieces that I can’t find? They’ve gotten lost, swept under the rug, eaten by the dog or something.

Can you see that God is not just a piece of this puzzle? I can’t just drop Him into His place in my life. Whenever I try to put the pieces together, I get frustrated because they just won’t go. I get out my hammer and try to smash the pieces into place and they don’t fit; mostly I just manage to mangle the pieces.

God is the one who is putting together the puzzle of my life. He is the Mind matching up the pieces; I am simply the pile of pieces. Not only is He fitting the pieces together, He created the pieces to begin with. He’s not just taking what was given to Him. He’s got a definite plan for each piece that He fashioned, and He’s putting it together precisely where He created it to be. When I accept that, when I rest in it and relax in it, I am submitting to His Sovereignty and I find peace rather than chaos. I see the pieces coming together into a beautiful picture rather than scattered haphazardly across the floor.

Give God the pieces and let Him put them together. Trade your puzzle pieces for His Peace.

Rebecca A Givens, 10/2008