God's Amazing Puzzle

Thinking back on our journey I realized that there are many similarities between it and the process of building a puzzle. God has been handing us pieces pretty much during our entire life. I guess the most challenging part about building this puzzle is the fact the we have no idea what the picture looks like when we start. So, initially we need quite a bit of guidance to get going and this normally comes from fellow Christians who have already made some progress with their own puzzles.

As we grow in our relationship with God we gain confidence and are able to start placing some of the pieces all by ourselves. Not all pieces fits in straight away (actually most don't), but normally we are able to put them down in more or less the correct area. As parts of the picture start to unfold we can get quite excited to see it and immediately reach for the next piece. Then there are also the times that we get distracted by the world and lose interest . . . while God patiently waits for us to take the next piece from His outstretched hand.

Sometimes He would hand us a piece which is really hard to place. We would put it down in the area where we think it might fit, just to pick it up a bit later again thinking that maybe it rather belongs to another part of the puzzle. I have even went so far as to tell God in no uncertain terms that He has made a mistake, got confused and handed me a piece from a different puzzle. When He gently persisted, I argued that He does not know me because if He did He would have known that that particular piece does not fit into my picture of happiness.

The reality is that God never make mistakes and therefore wouldn't take any pieces back. He does not want our puzzle to be spoiled by one missing piece when we finish the puzzle. Those of us who have build a puzzle with a missing piece or two knows how terribly disappointing it is . . . it is almost impossible to feel completely satisfied when the completed puzzle has a missing piece. The piece that I referred to above took me close to 7 years to accept as part of our puzzle and a further 3 years to place. Praise God that that piece will not be missing when we finish the puzzle.