4 Puzzle Truths
Every day, Scottie pulls out a puzzle and invites me to sit with her on the floor to put it together. Day after day, we assemble the picture working side by side. Each doing our part until it is finished, and we high-five our accomplishment.
As I try the puzzle piece to discover if it fits or not, I realize that in so many ways, our time on the floor has taught me 4 lessons about the life I am living.
1. We put our pieces into place differently. I always collect the edge pieces and create the border. Scottie finds something from the picture she wants to start with and begins with it. She works from the inside out. The way she assembles the puzzle makes ZERO sense to me, but she is able to do it with ease. Our approach is different, but neither way is wrong. In fact because we approach the puzzle differently, we are able to work seamlessly together. We are each playing our part. Isn’t that true for each of us? How I walk my purpose and life will look differently than how you walk your purpose and life. We so quickly want to jump to correcting or judging one another for how we live our life, but the truth is we are not all the same. We will see situations differently. We will have different perspectives because we have experienced different things. If we would encourage one another instead of judging, tearing down or forcing conformity, perhaps we could learn to work together to create something beautiful.
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
2. We will make mistakes. Despite the fact that I have completed each puzzle multiple times, I continue to try to put the pieces in the wrong spots. But they won’t fit - no matter how hard I try. Each piece serves a specific purpose. Their connection is precise. If I give up after the first try, I wouldn’t make it very far. This specific lesson is tough for me. I like doing things correctly, being right, and being good. Having to keep trying over and over only illuminates my imperfections and then my critical voice begins to berate me. I have a choice each and every time. I can listen to the voice and give up, which will result in not completing the purposes God has planned for me, or I can admit that I am not perfect and try again. Make a different choice. Try something different. Ask for help. It takes a little longer. But each and every time God is refining me and reminding me that He doesn’t expect perfection from me. He is only asking for my obedience and willingness to pick up my cross and follow Him. With every choice to keep moving forward, I have hope because I know God has a plan and purpose for my life and I am simply walking into that plan.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
3. The picture is the goal, but each piece contains hidden treasures. As Scottie and I work on our puzzle, the goal is to complete the puzzle and stand back and look at the picture. Often Scottie will ask questions like what is your favorite part? However, we have recently tried to take notice of each individual piece. The colors. The shapes. The hidden treasure in each piece. Living my life as a child of God, I have accepted my time here on earth is just a mist. A small blip of time because eternity is exponentially longer than the years here on earth. The big picture is to live my life loving God and loving others in such a way that the truth of the cross oozes out of my life and points others to Jesus. That’s the big picture. Holding one piece of my life in my hand and acknowledging the treasures God has gifted me. Some of these treasures are hard. They aren’t pretty and are full of pain, confusion, and sadness. Yet if I look a little closer, I will see that I survived because I wasn’t alone. Some parts are full of joy, happiness, and laughter and I hold these a little closer to remind me of God’s goodness when the hard piece is picked back up. All of these parts are all intertwined. It isn’t like one whole section of the big picture is joy and hope and another is pain and suffering. No, they exist side by side creating a masterpiece.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
4. I will not see the final picture and it’s fine. Scottie and I always keep the picture of what we are creating in front of us. We refer back to it for little details. The truth, is with my life, I am not given a final picture with each detail lined out. Would I even want that? I am a planner so theoretically it would seem I would want to know, but maybe the not knowing helps me to lean in closer to God and place all of my hope in Him and not my ability to see the picture. My hope comes in remembering who God is and His faithfulness in my life. My desire to keep going forward rests in knowing that He is the ultimate Creator and planner of my life - not me. Praise Jesus! My willingness to keep taking chances is because with every day in His presence He is molding me and shaping me into who He designed me to be. (Sometimes the molding HURTS!) Each part of my life is put in place and a little at a time the picture is slowly revealed to me. I cannot see it in it’s completed state, but there are glimpses. The glimpses encourage me. I know one day, I will stand before Jesus and glance over and see the completed picture. The complete life. And it will be something far more beautiful than I could possibly have imagined.
The picture is incomplete. A big pile of pieces sitting there waiting to be picked up and placed. Today, I choose to pick up a piece. Admire it. Give thanks for it. Look for the hidden treasure. And find its place - even if it takes me several tries. Today, I will follow Scottie’s lead and ask someone for help. Not judging how my person completes the puzzle. We will just work side by side each doing our part. I will take notice of those around me and give them a high-five as we celebrate the picture being created. Anticipating something beautiful, I am reminded that I am the one who has to pick up the piece. It starts with me.