PuZzLeD

Consider with me the puzzle of life.

When you are born, let's imagine an unmarked cardboard box comes with the delivery date. 

You and your little puzzle box.

The new parents are so excited to meet you that they almost forget to pack that unclaimed package when they take you home that day. The admissions nurse reminds your mother to keep track of that box in the short briefings before the sliding door opens to a brand new world. 

At first they are so overwhelmed by your very presence that the box is quite forgotten. This downy soft velveteen of a new baby is intoxicating and sweet. Mum and Da can't seem to get enough of those precious moments together with you.

In the next few, very short months that it takes you to grow into a tiny human with your very own free will who just discovered this power of the word "NO!",                          your parents whisper between themselves about that box. What does it all mean? What should we do with it? What will it become? For a while the box is refered to as an inanimate object, separate from you.

Soon they will cautiously open the plain brown box to see what's inside.  All they find is a jumbled pile of carefully chiseled cardboard puzzle pieces, just like the box their parents found once upon a very long time ago. 

They begin building hopes and dreams that may never interest you at all. Eventually, they will even create a label to try to help figure out how to put all the pieces together. Your label may say "Wealthy, international lawyer", or "Intelligent, hard-working tradesmen ", or "Beautiful, red-haired musician", or "Common, next-door neighbor". 

As a young child, this may or may not help you at all. But a start, is still a start. If nothing else, the labels guide you in a direction, which one you choose is up to you.

As the years go by, your family or others who are influential in your life, will assist with putting the frame together with you. The frame may be complete when you graduate, or it may be missing a few pieces. 

But it is enough to go on. You can figure out how it all fits together as you find something more to fill it in.

In some families, they are willing to help in many ways that are beneficial. The center of the puzzle becomes simple to put together, almost effortless. They may be right beside you every step of the way, to find just the right piece to add to the equation. 

In other families, it may be very difficult to get any help at all, and you may be left to your own devices to make your way in this world. The puzzle is hard earned, every fitting piece is much appreciated as the years go by and more of the puzzle becomes complete. 

Perhaps, your family has even gone so far as to throw your puzzle box out the window and you have had to scramble to collect the discarded, crumpled, muddy, and bent bits of your life and furiously strive to start over. 

Again. 

And Again. 

Or maybe it all started out great, the frame was finished and something happens to the box. 

Or a squirrel came crashing through the window to get away from a cat, scattering the once-carefully-placed-pieces all across the house.

You may be so frustrated with the whole thing and shove it all in a cupboard to try and forget.

In some cases, the puzzle box gets mixed up with someone else's and there are mismatched pieces now.

Or in one of your multiple moves cross country,  somewhere the pieces you thought would work next have been lost.

There are so many things that could happen to your personal puzzle pieces that I can't describe it all, 

but one thing is clear.

In every single person's private puzzle box, is a hole. There is ONE, purposely empty spot in the puzzle.

No matter how fast you are able to connect all the pieces, you will lose some along the way. You will get a few mixed up with someone else. You will repeatedly force fit some pieces where they do not belong. And when you get the puzzle close enough to finished,  you will find an empty space. 

That empty space will be easy for some to figure out.  

If all the surrounding pieces are there, you can make out just exactly what you are looking for. The edges will point to a very specific shape. The shape, the hole, the missing piece - is the glory of God. 

Everything we do: our job, our interactions with others, our entertainment, our times of rest, our duties; must all be done for the glory of God.

Our successes, our failures, our gains and our losses,    our love, our likes and dislikes, all point to a new hope. 

The hope we have comes from what Jesus chose to complete our puzzle. 

Our purpose on this earth isn't just to find out what kind of picture belongs on the box. 

Our purpose isn't to have the prettiest picture to glue together and set in a frame so the pieces never get lost again. 

Our purpose is to be content with box and the puzzle pieces we have been given and to the best of our abilities to put it all together. 

The Master Woodcrafter will graciously help you fill in those missing and broken pieces to make a masterpiece He is proud to call His Own. He will lovingly transform those dog-eared cardboard chunks into a glorious hand carved sculpture for His kingdom. You will shine brighter than the stars on a cloudless evening. 

Ýou will be complete!

Putting together my little corner of the puzzle

For the glory of God

Amidst the Rubble

Written by: Sue Leerhoff @Brick by Brick