The Missing, Not Missing Piece Daily Reflection #6

My Mom was a jigsaw puzzle lover and so is her granddaughter and now her great granddaughters. Mom always told us to buy puzzles at tag sales to save money from buying them new. The only problem with that is there could be pieces missing. Kind puzzle people--rabbit trail ahead--what are they called? puzzle solvers, puzzle people, puzzle doers, puzzlers? Google informs me that they are called dissectologists--back to my original thoughts--Kind dissectologists often put on the box "1 piece missing or 2 pieces missing". Some cool looking puzzles I would think would still be fun to do, but if it said that, Mom didn't want it. I guess she couldn't stand the incompleteness. 

I bought this puzzle at a tag sale for my daughter. I love the notations on the box. Darn, one piece missing on this cool puzzle, but wait, here's another note, "found it!" and "not" added to clarify. If I didn't know the person who I bought it from, the picture of the puzzle sure gives a clue as to why the piece was missing--most likely a dissectologist who was also an ailurophile (showing off my rabbit trail skills--a cat lover). I would wager that a cat had something to do with the missing piece. Pretty good detective skills, right?

999 pieces and one was missing. I'm sure this dissectologist looked under the table, in the box, under other furniture and in all corners of the room. 999 is a lot of pieces but what joy when she found that one missing piece. The puzzle was complete. It reminds me of one of my favorite parables of the lost sheep. Jesus, the good shepherd, will leave the 99 to look for 1. Jesus doesn't want any puzzle pieces missing or left behind--that includes you and me. How comforting is that? 

"It a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about the one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish."

Matthew 13:10-14

The Jigsaw Puzzle of Life

Upon reading Psalm 139:16, my attention was grabbed by the unintentional rhyming in this translation. It's a comforting little poem and makes it easier to commit to memory.

           "All the days (you*) ordained for me

            were written in your book

            before one of them came to be."

*I added "you" to help the rhythm a little. 

We are each a jigsaw puzzle. Every day a piece is added to our life. Unlike puzzles that come in a box, we don't have a picture of the final outcome. We have a vision of what we think it will look like when it's completed, but only God knows what the final picture looks like. 

The story of our life is being formed piece by piece. Each piece fits in perfectly though there are times when we don't feel that way. Sometimes we feel a piece of life is being forced upon us that there is no way would fit into our lives. It's not how we would build our puzzle, but God sees the big picture. Every little piece has a purpose. Every piece is ordained by him and fits perfectly.

This should also comfort us as we are told in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." When the pieces that we didn't expect to be part of our lives become part of our picture, look forward to the following pieces to see the design that God has created. And when the final piece has been placed and our life on earth is through, may people look at how we lived our life with its trials and triumphs and may our whole picture be one of glorious beauty that others will remember with love and admiration.

Starting with a rhyme, I felt led to close with one.

May our lives reflect His love for us
And may His love shine through
As we love others on this earth
As we are called to do.

And when our time on earth is through
May others reflect and see
Our life's puzzle was approved by God
And all was meant to be.