Psalm 139:13 For you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Sometimes the winter days seem long and boring, and last January I was looking for something interesting to do. I thought a jigsaw puzzle was the answer. I could set up a card table by the fireplace and spend many enjoyable hours placing those many pieces together to form a picture. I brought home the perfect puzzle and was anxious to get started. A guarantee said all the pieces were in the box… no need to worry if any were missing. I dumped the contents of the box on the table and set to work! First came the corner pieces- a snap to find. Then the border was placed together…no problem- straight edges were easy to fit together. Next I had to sort by color, and the process became more complex. This picture reconstruction was not as easy as I had remembered it!
I was thankful there was a picture on the box cover showing me what to look for. Some pieces fit easily together, but others did not. Sometimes I tried to jam one puzzle piece into another.. just knowing it was the one that belonged there… but then realizing it was in the wrong place. There was no fit. I worked for a long time on my puzzle, sometimes getting frustrated, sometimes smiling to myself at the progress I was making. But I was always compelled to stop by the card table and look at my progress . It would take a moment or maybe much longer, to fit a piece or two into place. The picture began to become clear… and finally it was time to put that last piece into place. How I enjoyed my completed work.. I would just walk by the card table and look at it, marvelling at its completion!
People are like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in a box. When we arrive, all the components for our entire life are wrapped up in the package of our little bodies. Some of the pieces of life will fall easily into place – like the corners and borders of the puzzle. Other pieces will not fit too easily.. we may have to struggle to find the proper way for them to fit. Sometimes we even try to jam pieces of our life together, trying to make them fit the way WE think they should. But God had the master plan of our lives all in that box before we were ever dumped into the world. He knew us even as we were in our mother’s womb, and He knew what the finished picture of our life would look like. He never takes His eyes off us, and He lovingly takes the pieces of our lives and fits them into place. The grand finale is when that last piece is put into place… that is when we have gone home to be with the Lord, and we are completed. The earthly picture is over, and the spirit is radiating in Jesus’ fullness, having been made whole, beautiful and pure ,just like Him.
Marion Smith noles65@aol.com comments and feedback welcome