Jigsaw puzzles were very popular when I was a youngster. That interest was re-kindled when my own children came along. Some adults still enjoy the therapeutic pastime and considerable challenge of completing a one thousand piece jigsaw puzzle. I’m not a jigsaw puzzle enthusiast, but I do know that there are a couple of things which should happen before any attempt to assemble all the pieces:
1. Carefully study the picture on the box so you know where you’re heading with it.
2. If possible, check that there are no pieces missing.
Sometimes life is like a jigsaw puzzle. We can’t see the picture which is emerging. It appears random and confusing. When I was 16, I’d only really just got going on assembling the jigsaw puzzle of my life when my dad died. It was like someone had kicked over the table which I was doing the jigsaw puzzle on, and all the pieces went everywhere. Not only that, it was like the box had been thrown away too. So I had no picture to follow, no clue how things fitted together, and no idea what to do with my life. I wasn’t doing well at school, I was beginning to go down a wrong road. It was a defining moment in my life.
Into that void, into that chaos, into that sense of abandonment, isolation and hopelessness came the gospel message, challenging me to give my life to God. The only way was to place all the pieces of my life before God and trust Him to complete the jigsaw puzzle. He filled in the missing pieces to bring wholeness, and gradually make the picture complete.
Psalm 18:20-24 (MSG) says: God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I got my act together, he gave me a fresh start. Now I’m alert to God’s ways; I don’t take God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works; I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I’m watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.
Main Photo Credit: Ross Sneddon via Unsplash
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