Pieces

Pieces. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Have you ever been putting together a really big jigsaw puzzle? You know, the ones with thousands of tiny pieces, each one so similar to the next that it is almost impossible to figure out what goes where. Maybe you've put a particular jigsaw puzzle together time after time, year after year....so many times that you no longer need to look at the picture on the box, because you know instinctively where each piece goes.

Now, imagine you are sitting down at a table to work this particular jigsaw puzzle for the umpteenth time. Your little girl comes to sit down next to you and says, "Mommy, can I help?" Now, you know this puzzle is too hard for her, especially because you've lost the box it came in and don't even have a picture of what it is supposed to look like. But you take her by the hand, sit her down with you, and say, "Sure, honey. Let's do this together." You give her about 10 or 12 pieces that you know will work to make a part of the picture, a small piece of the puzzle. She sits and works for a while, trying pieces first here, then there. She tries to put them in the wrong places at times, and you guide her hand. Then, after a time…voila! "I did it, Mommy!" She exclaims.

This goes on for a while, you giving her a few pieces to work on, guiding her, helping her, and her completing her portions bit by bit. Finally, in frustration and impatience, she says, "I don't want any help. I can do it just like you!" She takes all of the remaining pieces (not just ones you have given her) and tries to put something…anything together. She fits and tries and arranges and rearranges. Nothing. She gets more frustrated and annoyed, and tries some more. Not one piece goes together. Finally, she slings the pieces off the table, and exclaims, "I can't do it!", lies her head down on the table and cries. You say to her, "I know you can't do it by yourself. You're not ready for that. You need to let me guide you bit by bit, little by little, to put things together, because I know where everything needs to go to work out just right. You can't do it alone. But you can do it with me."

Now, I imagine me as that little girl, with God as the Ultimate Puzzle Master. Sometimes I try to do things on my own, thinking I know the best places for everything to fit. I try to fit things in here and there, turn it around, try again. But I don't get anywhere. Finally, I cry out to God, "I can't do it!" It's then He says to me, "I know you can't do it alone. You don't know what this is going to look like when it's finished. Only I know that. But you can do it with Me. I'll just give you a few things at a time that I know you can handle, and eventually, we'll get the whole picture finished. You and Me…together."

I want God to take all my pieces, jagged and torn, broken and ruined, and put them together into a picture, a mosaic, that will bring Him glory and honor.

May your day be blessed and your heart be happy,

-Andrea