I am writing from the four walls of a rented apartment, a place of isolation during my husband’s cancer treatment. It has been an extraordinary time of rest, a time for reading, with plenty of time for reflecting. And when I am tired from resting, reading and reflecting, I find it engaging to ruminate over a pile of puzzle pieces. So, here is my big thought for the day: life is a puzzle. Maybe that is a little cliché. But each time I sit down to the unfinished piece of art strewn across one end of the kitchen table, I see myself and God at work in me. So here is what I am thinking, and maybe you will see yourself in this picture too.
Our Christian faith teaches us that there is a big plan, an overriding master plan that God has written into the universe, into time and space and into our lives. There is a great, overreaching design of beauty and glory and salvation, and we play an integral part in its development. Within that plan are our individual lives, and they too have their own unique layouts which fit into the greater whole. Like the puzzle, there is vision and a framework for what our lives will look like. As a goal-oriented person, I like this idea very much. God has envisioned something beautiful and extraordinary for our lives. And He promises it will come to pass.
The problem lies in the grasping the vision through the disarray of the daily pieces. Some days our lives seem like piles of dissembled pieces of incongruent shapes and sizes. And there are so many of them! We like to categorize our lives, like we do the colors on the table – blue pieces in this pile, yellow over here – work pieces in this pile, relationships jumbled up over there. And we wonder how this unorganized mess will ever come together in order and symmetry. How do we “make” something of our lives? How do we make something beautiful of our lives?
Well, one answer to that question is to study and regularly refer the enclosed picture that comes with the puzzle. For Christians, that image is the person and life of Jesus Christ. Scriptures tell us that we are being formed in his image (2 Cor 3:18). He IS the big picture, and we (and the many discombobulated pieces of our lives) are being drawn together into his life and his big, beautiful plan. God in his grace has made “known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:9-10). Read that again. The big mysterious will of God for your life is laid out on the table for you. It is to be drawn into the life of Jesus. If we study the person of Jesus, the intricate details of his person and character, we will begin to see where our pieces fit in the big picture.
What I am finding in my isolated state of puzzle making, and what I know to be true in my life, people can be a great help. I often labor in one specific area of the picture and become frustrated because I am making no progress. Brow furrowed, eyes strained, I retreat, pushing myself away from the table. Milton walks by, on his way to the kitchen, stops for 30 seconds and drops a piece into place. Here is what I know. We need the perspective of others to come alongside us and turn our pieces sideways and upside down. We need help sometimes to see our circumstances in a new way. I see color, another sees shapes, someone else sees the correlative pattern. Together the pieces drop in faster, more easily. I know, it’s hard to let others move our pieces. We are pretty confident in our strategy and our neat little categories. It’s difficult to admit our myopic blindness, and for another to see it so easily. But if we can cede some of our control, we discover a joyful fellowship. We are team, not competitors. Isn’t this the gist of most genuine relationships, combining strengths and overlooking flaws? We need each other to see how the pieces come together.
I look at the half-finished piece of artwork, the one so brightly colored and inspired, and I wonder how my life is like this. Only some parts of the story line are finished. I can see only part of the picture. There are still gaping holes, and unfinished story lines that have yet to come together. My life is like that. Especially now. Part of the picture is not finished yet, and it is not supposed to be. I realize, like the puzzle, more time is needed. Puzzle time is flexible, an elastic sort of time. It ebbs and flows with our energy and focus. A puzzle can sit there a long time waiting for the next move. I think our lives are like that. Our faith is like that. There are strong periods of work and rest, expansion and withdrawal. But God is patient with us, always waiting until we are ready to make one more hopeful move in his great masterpiece. There really is no pressure and no point to make our life stories fuller or more complete before God’s appointed time. The Apostle Paul tells us that God, “who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6) We are going to get where God is taking us, and it is good. When we are ready, our life is still waiting for our next move.
Sorting out the puzzle of our lives and the many pieces can be a fearsome endeavor. But puzzle making is actually a faithful, hopeful and confident action. We do so with the belief that there is specific plan, and that all things will come together in time and perseverance and grace. We also recognize that God has provided exactly the right pieces to make our story line complete, including the people who come alongside us. Everything and everyone unique to our lives are there for a reason. As we commit to taking time to sit with the image God has shown us in Jesus, the mystery of our lives becomes clearer, and we are given the inspiration to put yet another piece into place. May we seek the great Artist’s beautiful image, embrace the scattered pieces, allow a friend to help us along, and let the Lord do his work in us one day at a time. It’s a good way to spend a quiet day.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,
so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)