“Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!”
1 Corinthians 13:9 NLT
My earliest memory of puzzling with Momma was sitting at a puzzle pieces-covered card table in the den, in front of the black and white TV. It was a memorable evening for several reasons. My little sister was in bed asleep. Daddy was at work. Momma let me stay up late to eat buttered popcorn, drink Dr. Pepper, and puzzle with her. And she allowed me to watch important, grownup TV.
It was the evening of one of the Kennedy-Nixon presidential debates and my first exposure to anything political. It was also my first time to see the two candidates and understand that both men wanted to be our next president.
Momma gave me a very simple explanation of how we choose a president in America. I felt very grown up to be included in the evening and I was quite taken with the handsome young Kennedy. Too young to understand politics, I just knew that Kennedy was better looking than the other sweaty guy. If I could have voted….
I never see a jigsaw puzzle without thinking about that special evening with my mother.
My Momma loved puzzles. Her affection for herding hundreds of multi-colored, oddly shaped, interlocking bits of pressed cardboard into pictures of foreign landscapes, beautiful flowers, and loveable pets was passed on to her daughters. Momma was a jigsaw queen, and we followed in her royal footsteps.
The picture on the puzzle box was always our guide. We’d begin by sorting pieces into piles of edge pieces and predominant colors. Starting with the four corners, we would first build the straight-edge outline of the puzzle. For landscape puzzles, we’d tackle the sky next. Then we’d work down from the sky and in from the lower edges until we completed our puzzle masterpiece.
Non-landscape pictures also began with edges. From there we’d each take a predominant color and work to piece together finished blocks that would be patch-worked together until our puzzle was whole.
There is a degree of strategy involved in puzzling. But the real key to success and a constant point of reference throughout the process is the picture on the box.
We tend to look at our lives like a puzzle. We think that all we must do is fit together the many pieces of our puzzle and a beautiful picture of a life well-lived will emerge. Everything will make sense, everything will come together – maybe not easily – but it will come together, and we’ll all live happily ever after. Picture perfect.
Yes, our lives could be likened to a jigsaw puzzle, but not a new, unopened puzzle box with every pristine piece included.
Our lives are most often like a puzzle purchased at a garage sale. A worn, corner-taped box with a loose-fitting top, the contents of which are suspect at best. Once examined closely, you’ll find pieces that the dog used as a chew toy, pieces stained by coffee or coke, or even pieces still slightly greasy from buttery popcorn fingers.
Maybe all the pieces are there, but more likely than not, you’ll get to the end of the puzzle and realize you’re missing a piece or two or three. So disappointing.
Many of us go to the Bible as though it were a box of puzzle pieces. We want to find the pieces we need to create a picture of the life we want to live. Or we search through its pages looking for a picture of exactly what our lives should look like today, and what the finished version should look like tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that, and so on.
Your Bible may contain pictures, graphs, charts, and maps, but I can say with certainty that you will not find a photo of you living your ideal life, nor will you find random pieces of puzzles for you to try to put together on your own.
What you will find in God’s Word is everything that God intends for you, as a believer in Christ Jesus, to incorporate into your life’s picture with the help of His Holy Spirit. As you saturate yourself in the Word of Truth:
– Your relationship with the One who created you and designed the grand picture of your existence will grow and deepen. (Psalm 119:89-97, 2 Peter 3:18)
– Your understanding of, appreciation for, and confidence in your salvation through Jesus Christ will take deep root within your heart, mind, and spirit. (John 20:31, Galatians 2:20, Timothy 3:15, 1 John 5:11-13)
– You can begin to live in the complete and abiding joy of Jesus Christ (John 15:11, 1 John 1:4)
– God will equip you for whatever He may call you to do in obedience to Him. (2 Timothy 3:17)
– You can learn to experience true peace and freedom from the worries, anxieties, and fears of this world. (John 14:7, John 8:31-32)
– You will increase in wisdom and understanding and be able to take true delight in the truth of God. (Psalm 19:7-9)
– God will guide your way and make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
– God’s living and active Word of Truth and His Holy Spirit work together in you to help keep your heart, head, and spirit aligned with the heart of God. (Hebrews 4:12)
– You can live with confident assurance that all that God has ever spoken is true, trustworthy, and eternal. His promises are certain. (Mark 13:31)
Friend, our life is not a stamped photograph on a puzzle box. The Master Artist is painting our picture stroke by stroke. He alone knows exactly how the final rendering will emerge. The one thing He promises is that it will be completed – beautifully.
And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6 ESV