Reflections From Puzzles and Pieces.

God taught me something profound, and yet simple while I was doing a puzzle today.

I admit, I am a complete nerd in many senses of the word. I love puzzles, and actually, God usually speaks to me through interesting means, and today was no different. I was putting together a mosaic, Jack Sparrow puzzle. Classy, I know.

I don't know if y'all have spent much time doing puzzles, but they can be time consuming. And often times you'll put a piece where you think it goes, and maybe it even kind of fits in there and looks like it belongs, but with a closer look you can tell that it actually doesn't fit at all. Sometimes you have to try multiple spaces before you find where your particular piece fits. And sometimes it can be frustrating.

When we were young and my sister and I would do puzzles, she used to just force pieces together, because she hated puzzles and she just liked to try to make it work in her own way. And sometimes I did that too. And sometimes I am sure that a piece goes somewhere, but it simply doesn't fit.

And that is where God met me, and spoke to my heart. He showed me that sometimes I do that with my life. Or the lives of others. Sometimes I take an event, or idea or circumstance and try to make it fit into life where its just not meant to go. It won't fit, no matter how hard I try. Because a different 'piece' goes there.

This is all very timely for me as there has been a lot of transition in my life recently and I keep telling God that I am ready to have some normalcy. I am learning to wait and let Him orchestrate seasons and changes.

It is not God overlooking my life, it is simply Him realizing where each and every situation, circumstance and life event 'fits.' I'm not getting into the whole debate on how much of our lives is predestined by God, and how much choice He gives us, because its not really important in this case. But what I am saying is that God knows.

He knew that I needed to go to community college and then take two years off and do missions work and go to Bible school and work. It didn't make sense in the moment, and yet now I realize the perfect timing of it all.

And sometimes its like I am doing a puzzle. I try to yank the pieces out of His hands and I tell Him "This is where it goes!" Shoving it somewhere that it doesn't belong. And He is quick to remind me, when those times come that 'No, my dear, that isn't where it goes. I will put it where it goes.' And I have to learn to surrender once again. Its a lifelong lesson, I'm quite sure. One that I'll never be done learning.

And sometimes the pieces that fit together don't make sense with the rest of the picture until that point. And that is okay. It doesn't have to make sense. I trust that when the whole 'puzzle of my life' as I sometimes refer to it, is finished, that it will be beautiful. That doesn't mean that I walk around naively thinking that its not going to involve hardship. It will and it does. But knowing that I am held in His arms is beautiful.

And then there are those pieces that don't seem to fit anywhere. I had one of those today, and I realized that the puzzle piece was upside down. I wonder if that doesn't sometimes happen with life as well? Something happens, and we don't see the use of it, or how it comes into play with anything else in our lives. Or we wait and wait for it to make sense, and it doesn't.

Sometimes life goes like that. And its all part of learning to surrender. Learning to let the Master Builder do what He does-- Build. Put things together. Create. And we get to watch what He creates. I'd say that's a pretty huge privilege.

I don't have pat answers for the things in life that don't make sense. And it wouldn't do anything for anyone to try to force some pat answer. But I do know that there is a peace that comes when I stop trying to make everything fit in my time frame and I simply let Him show me where the pieces fit.