Carol's Corner

Do you enjoy setting puzzle pieces together?

I am not an avid, or even occasional puzzle lover. I look at all the little pieces, often with similar colours and wonder where to even begin without picking up dozens of pieces to try in the same spot, well at least after the edge pieces. As a little girl, I would stand beside my dad’s chair as he picked up each little piece spread out on the table in front of him. He would examine it, turn it different directions in his hand and then try to attach it to other pieces of the picture he had begun to make. Often it seemed to me that he simply knew which piece to pick up and did not have to try dozens before finding the right one. I never figured out how he often seemed to find the right one without very little effort.
With his evening of puzzling complete, he simply laid the table cloth back over his work, leaving the table accessible for meals and his work undisturbed until the next time he found time to work on it. This love of setting a puzzle together stayed with him through out his life. At ninety years old, he still passed the time at the puzzle table, enjoying the task and the visits with other like minded individuals. His competitive nature edged to the forefront when he wanted to be the one to put the last piece in place and finish the picture.
As I thought about my father and his love of puzzles, it reminded me of life. Sometimes our life might seem like it is fragmented or shattered into thousands of tiny, jagged pieces. The colours look like they might belong together but various shapes, with edges and holes begging to be joined to the right fitting piece. We can’t see the entire scene and we are working blind – there is no box with a copy of what the finished product should look like.

Our lives have many different components and how they fit together to make a complete picture might seem like a puzzle. At times the pieces fit together easily, snuggly and beautifully. Yet there are times when the tough stuff comes along, the pieces become difficult to find their place and we despair of seeing the big picture. At times I feel like one of the pieces might be missing. But when I trusted God, He always supplied what I needed but in His time and in His way which often looks so different than my own. He is the only one who knows the complete picture of my life.

This month I want to look at some of the puzzle pieces that pop into our lives and how, in the midst of uncertainty we can find a small flicker of hope. Join me in a journey to discover how the puzzle pieces of life fit together to make our own unique picture – one of contrasts, beauty and unexpected results.