Have you ever been captured by a puzzle picture that you just had to put together? or how many of us have traditions where we put a Christmas puzzle together every year?
I have fond memories of putting together puzzles with my mom and just when we were ready to call it a night four or five pieces would magically snap into place extending us into the wee hours of the night. I’m confident that I’m not the only one that has had that experience. I have also had the experience where it got so frustrating that I have left it and tried again another day where it seemed that none of the pieces were fitting right or the colours were all blending.
It seems that once a year tradition has now turned into a daily therapeutic pastime for so many. A group of people from our church with their friends have been swapping puzzles for over the last year. As one lady says, “It keeps us seniors out of trouble”. I’m not sure if they have attempted any of those 3000 piece plus puzzles.
I was nudged by the Holy Spirit to purchase some puzzles that were maps or indicated places in Canada or more inspirational puzzles that give us room to pray and think on the message. In each puzzle was placed a note challenging the puzzler to pray for the Canadian people and the world and spend some time pondering the inspirational thought. Many of our puzzlers have been posting completed puzzles on social media and we applaud those workers. I just love seeing the colors, and all the wonderful scenes. There are some of these that I wouldn’t even attempt.
Consider for a moment that your life is a puzzle. It may be a simple puzzle with a hundred different pieces, or it may be a more complicated thousand-piece puzzle with a picture that’s rather tricky to put together. Either way, as you work through this puzzle of life, you’re more than likely going to try forcing some wrong pieces into the empty spaces. They look like they should fit, but as you continue, it becomes clearer to you that they’re just not meant to line up that way. So, what do you have to do? Well, break it apart, of course, and reassemble those pieces the right way.
Now look at your life. Maybe we think it’s going along smoothly. Then one day, you’re blindsided by a situation. There may just be a few puzzle pieces that need rearranging, or it may be an entire section. But whatever the size of the challenge, mistakes are gifts.
Because when you do, you’ll realize that you’re now one step closer to seeing the whole picture and having all the pieces connect at exactly the perfect points. Build your life just as you would a puzzle. Piece by piece. Section by section.
Do you have a vision of what your life might look like?? What does your puzzle look like? Is it falling into place, or are you forcing the pieces to fit where they don’t belong? If it’s the latter, keep trying… the answers are all inside of you. And at this very moment, a surprisingly stunning picture is revealing itself to you one “gift” at a time.
