Puzzles

“I see that real wisdom is not being able to put together all the puzzle pieces when God allows suffering to shatter our lives. No, that’s not wisdom. Real wisdom is the ability to trust God even when the puzzle pieces don’t fit, and especially when lots of those pieces get lost.”

--Joni Eareckson Tada

“I do not know why oft around me,

my hopes all shattered seem to be;

God's perfect plan I cannot see,

but someday I'll understand,

someday He’ll make it plain to me;

someday when I His face shall see;

someday from tears I shall be free,

for someday I will understand.”

—From The Hymn, “Someday He’ll Make It Plain”

In the last few months, I’ve picked up the hobby of puzzles.  Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love puzzles.  This is also the reason I’ve been called the “puzzle queen” in recent days.  While I enjoyed puzzles even as I was a young child, recently they’ve become a place of a rest and reprieve for me. 

Why I love puzzles so much I cannot completely identify.  I think part of it is after years of sickness and medication, my mind doesn’t always work as well as it use to; however, I excel at putting puzzles together.

I think what I love most about puzzles is that I love to see broken things redeemed.  When you start a puzzle, you just have a mess of little pieces that make no sense on their own; by the end you have a beautiful picture. 

Our lives are a lot like puzzles.  There are areas of dark pieces.  There are areas of light pieces.  Apart, they often don’t make sense—but when you see the picture, the whole picture, you see why the light and dark are necessary to complete the picture.

In life, we don’t like the dark pieces.  We would prefer our lives stay sunny and bright in the light pieces.  What we can’t see is that sometimes God takes the dark pieces to make the most beautiful part of the picture. 

Unlike literal puzzles, on earth our “life puzzles” may always stay broken.  Sometimes bodies don’t heal.  Sometimes relationships fall apart and can never be put back together.  Yet, I take comfort in the fact that each piece—even the most broken, tattered, dark pieces—are being used by God to ultimately shape the picture of His perfect plan for my life.  While I may not see the way the pieces come together now, I must trust God with the pieces, knowing that one day when all is revealed in my heavenly home I will see all the broken pieces come together and no longer be broken—but redeemed and restored. 

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

Revelation 21:3-7