Puzzle Pieces

The Lord said, “I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” (Habakkuk 1:5)

Are you waiting for God to do something in your life?  Do you see something beginning and wonder where God will go with it?  Or do you see a box of puzzle pieces just waiting for someone to help you put them together?  Maybe you have started to put the pieces together.  I know as a little girl, my family would work on big puzzles together.  We would get out the 500 or 1000 piece puzzles and put them on a special table.  We would start with the outer edge and work on it little by little.  It was a fun family project.  Often I found myself working on a little portion of the puzzle, maybe 5 to 10 pieces.  I was trying to figure out how they fit together.  It was always a fun challenge.

It’s kind of like the challenge that a painter faces when coming to a brand new canvas.  Everyone else sees just paint, but the painter creates a masterpiece.  Here is a story of a man who was working on a piece of artwork at a high school.

The Big Picture
by: Author Unknown, Source Unknown

A high school hired my friend George, an artist, to repaint the school mascot – a yellow jacket – on a football stadium wall. This was a difficult task because the painting was so large that the painter could only see a small portion of it at a time.

George had to stand a distance away in order to see the whole picture and give directions to another painter. If George’s assistant had tried to paint according to his own limited perspective, seeing only a small part of the picture, he could have made a mistake. By following George’s directions, however, he helped create an image that delights school sports fans.

Our life with God is something like George’s view of the wall. As we face life’s challenges, we are not in a position to see the whole picture, neither of the world nor of our own lives. We see only a small portion. If we rely only on our limited perspective, we risk calamity. Instead, we can choose to trust God – the One who sees the whole picture – to direct our efforts. If we do, God can work through us to create something delightful.

Prayer: O God, direct us in living out the beautiful picture you envision, rather than following only our limited vision. Amen.

Just like this painting needed someone to see things from the bigger perspective, so also we need someone to help us put the puzzle together.  This is where my family comes in.  After working days or sometimes weeks on a puzzle we would all put our portions together and soon the puzzle would start looking like the picture on the box.  Inevitably, there was always that one piece or two missing.  Usually, mom or dad would be hiding it.  They liked to be the ones to put the last piece of the puzzle in.  God is the same way, He is the One who is holding the key pieces to our puzzle of life.  He will put them in place when the timing is right.  Yes, we would love to know where all the missing pieces are, but the time is not right.  Only God knows when the puzzle needs to look like the picture on the box.  And the picture on the box will look like the image in the mirror of God.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:22-2)

Study the Word, memorize it, hide it in your heart, and you will become a reflection of your Heavenly Father.  May the mirror you look into become the face of the One who holds your life in His hands.

Dear Father God, I pray that I may daily surrender the desire to know every piece of my life.  I have a tendency to always want to know the details and truly the only One who needs to know is You.  I pray You will continue to place every piece of the puzzle where it needs to be in Your timing!  I give you this day and every day of my life to do as You desire!

May my Puzzle Pieces be Yours,