My mom and I have been working on puzzles on and off for as long as I can remember. I remember putting together puzzles at our dining table in elementary school and would get so excited about it. We’d have it out for a few days or however long it took, and I’d even wake up and get ready for the day and put a few pieces in if I could before we left the house.
Lately, we’ve been doing “harder” puzzles where the colors blend together in the picture and the pieces look like they go but then we later have to move them around.
WHY WON’T THE PIECES FIT!?
That’s me, probably (likely).
Puzzles aren’t for everyone. I like most kinds of puzzles – the typical ones on the table, but also Sudoku puzzles and such.
Our lives are filled with puzzle pieces and the master of the puzzle – putting each piece just so, lining it all up amid the mess – sees the finished masterpiece already.
I started this post, I think, with the intention of saying that we make mistakes trying to fit pieces of our lives or other things into our puzzles instead of pieces that go in the bigger picture to begin with. Like you can’t put a piece of fruit in as a puzzle piece – even if it were a puzzle with the picture of fruit on it, it’s not going to work.
As I type this though, if we’re putting the puzzle pieces in, we’re taking ownership and thinking we know where they go when we don’t even know what the finished product is supposed to look like.
How many times have you done a jigsaw puzzle without a box or photo for reference? It’s really tough. Especially if you do the 1000-piece ones! I can’t even, just thinking about it. I haven’t put one together without a point of reference.
If left up to ourselves, we fit anything into our lives that looks like it fits. It might be the right shape and the colors almost line up, but something doesn’t look and feel right about it. It doesn’t mesh well with the surrounding pieces already in place.
It’s important to reference our puzzle pieces against something other than the pieces alone. Where do we look?
For working a puzzle on the table, we have the box or a printed photo to look at. For our lives, we have His Word.
We don’t have to go through life cramming pieces in where they don’t belong. Sometimes you do have to test things, but in general, if you have a reference, you won’t be putting an orange piece where there’s only blue sky.
I hope you’re encouraged today knowing that God can handle putting your thousands of puzzle pieces together to create something beautiful.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:19-21
Are you a fan of puzzles?
Have a great weekend!
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