Jen’s Gem: Let God finish your puzzle.

This past week, my daughter and I worked on a puzzle, something we both enjoy. The puzzle was only 500 pieces, so clearly do-able in a short amount of time. She wants to place it in a frame for her new apartment, which we are busily preparing to furnish and accessorize before her move in date in a month or so.

We began the project as most people do by completing the border. All seemed fine and we proceeded to put other sections together. With no picture of the final product on the container, we were “flying solo.” While our approaches to connecting the pieces were different, we were making progress, until…

There was a big chunk of the puzzle that simply did not fit where we thought it was to go. We searched and searched for the anomaly, but could not find it. We decided to focus on the other sections to continue our forward progress. It was at this time that she noticed that a piece of the border was in the wrong spot. As much as it looked like it was a perfect fit, well, it just wasn’t.

As soon as we moved the section to its forever home, the whole puzzle came together. In less than a half hour, we completed it. All of a sudden, those orphan pieces found their place. Our previous declarations of “maybe we’re missing some pieces” flew out of the window. Everything we needed was there. We just had to re-arrange some things and then look at the puzzle with new eyes.

For more than ten years, I have been re-arranging the puzzle pieces of my life. My work, my home, my parenting, my walk with God have been moved around from here to there as I sought to complete my “life puzzle.” Lessons have been learned (many the hard way) and seasons of change have brought about new revelations that have formed me into who I am today – light years from where I was.

Today, because of my faith and relationship with God through His Son, my approaches to the hiccups as well as the blessings of my life are vastly different. Unlike our cardboard puzzle, there actually were pieces that had to be let go of so that a new puzzle could be created. It’s been challenging, yet I wouldn’t trade a minute of it.

I’ve recently started to watch “The Chosen,” a movie about the life of Jesus. This grassroots effort to accurately depict the life of God’s Son is so compelling, so real that I find myself wanting to watch it again and again. I highly recommend it. (Click here to check it out.)

What I found most intriguing was the process of selecting the twelve apostles. These twelve men – completely different in background, gifts, talents, and personality came together for one purpose: to tell the world about the love of God. When you watch them, you see yourself, which is what makes them so relatable. Even though this was thousands of years ago, human nature is human nature.

You’ve got Peter who was stubborn as a mule. John who was attached to Jesus like Velcro declaring every five seconds that he was Jesus’ favorite. Matthew, a tax collector, hated by his people. Even Judas, Jesus’ eventual betrayer, was smart and a “financial whiz.” Twelve puzzle pieces that did not seem to fit together, but did. Why? How?

It was Jesus. The love and acceptance that Jesus bestowed on these men transformed them so much that they left  everything to follow Him. They left families, homes, occupations, their safety and security. They placed their lives in His more than capable hands because in Jesus they found all of their missing puzzle pieces, their purpose.

The Bible tells us that our lives are hidden in Christ. Our purpose for living is being kept safe with God, waiting for us to discover it. The only way to do so is to seek Him first. There will be no billboards on the highway or lights in Times Square, but rather a still, small voice that speaks directly to us when we have a deep and personal relationship with God through His Son.

Jesus sought out his followers. He didn’t pick them willy-nilly, but rather chose those who He knew ahead of time would fulfill the call. When you consider who Jesus picked, you may scratch your head. However, we know that God does not pick the obvious, the great, the perfect, but rather the unexpected, the lowly, and the imperfect as it says in 1 Corinthians 1:28:

“and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are…” (NKJV)

God takes our “orphan puzzle pieces” and joins them together perfectly. Each of us can look back on our lives and see how God took all of our brokenness and used it to do a good thing. He took the lost jobs, the financial burdens, the illnesses and turned it all around. Why? Because He’s a good Father and He loves us.

“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” (Genesis 50:20 NKJV)

God takes all of the puzzle pieces of our lives and creates a beautiful mosaic. (Click to Tweet!) He can and will do this for anyone who wants Him to. All you need to do is ask Him.

If something in your life is not fitting together as it should, I want to encourage you to look at it with a fresh set of eyes – look at it through God’s eyes and let Him re-arrange the pieces of your life puzzle. I guarantee that once you do, everything will fit together perfectly.