Blog

Gary Williams, December 2014

I like to think of it (life) like a jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces fit together, this is God’s will. 

Some are similar in shape, size and color while some are very different, like all border pieces have a flat side but only the four corner pieces have two.

Some of the others have one tab,  three slots, some two and two, some all tabs, some all slots, and the some three tabs, one slot, some a smooth edge but not straight like a border piece. It takes every piece fitted properly together which takes trial and error, patience, concentration, many needed skills, to complete the puzzle. 

Once complete it is a beautiful work of art, whether the picture itself is of a meadow, a city, a beach, whatever, it doesn’t matter, it still could not be complete without every piece in place. Now you’ve got the idea, the puzzle analogy. Let’s move onto how that relates to life, although I’m sure you are already making the connection that everyone, everything is not the same.

We each start at our beginning and follow a path led by so much outside influence, we could hardly make any of those choices for ourselves the first many years, and if we did or even tried perhaps would have been quickly ‘corrected’. As we grow into young adults we find making our own decisions becomes required, as well as dealing with any consequences. Onward into adulthood, many of our choices, still many by others; picking a school, serving our country, going to technical training, choosing a career, getting a job. Many find ourselves not having a choice at all, others are blessed to have financial backing, some are still living out the consequences of a prior decision.

But what about death? As a person dies and their soul leaves the body (their piece of the puzzle) another is born and will grow up to fit that specific piece, that place, and belong as a part of the big picture.

Now how do we get all the pieces to fit?

I would bet no-one has ever dumped the box out on the table and the pieces all just fell perfectly into place. It takes skills mentioned previously, time, patience, effort and even a desire to do it in the first place. How many of us are just lost in life, waiting for someone to come along, pick us up, look at us, and help us get to where we belong? 

Where do we fit into the big picture? Are we a leader, a follower, lost, fighting the system trying to force our way into a place where we do not belong? Are we still growing to be that which fits into our perfect place?

God has a plan for each of us, He did not “dump out the pieces” to make a perfect picture, but He has that perfect picture in mind (created us in His image). 

We need to work together, grow into what He created us to be, and become the part of His perfect picture. 

Some of us will suffer tragedy, illness but we will heal, repair ourselves and become that which we were meant to be in His plan, or we will be replaced and our replacement will then fit in. 

Now comes the hard part; have you spent most of your life trying to fit into the wrong puzzle? Are you the one everyone is looking for to complete a perfect picture you have not even dreamed of yet? Or are you one of the ones chosen to guide the lost pieces to their home, mold them into the shape they were intended to have before they strayed? 

At the end of the story, wait there can be no end, because just as He created this perfect plan, so He created many and will continue to create them as long as He desires. So there is no end to this story, there will always be perfect pictures for us to see and learn from as we fall into our place and become the perfect picture for others who follow.