Putting the pieces together..

I'm not terribly fond of picture puzzles. I'm thinking about those with 1000+ pieces. Never really have had the patience to finish them. I remember trying to piece together pieces that look like they fit but don't seem to fit quite right. Sometimes in frustration i would try to press two close looking pieces together only to find later that the pieces were never supposed to fit together.

It was always easier to start with the outside, as the inside pieces were so much harder to make sense of. If i could only get the outside together, maybe the inside would start to fall in place too. But even with the outside edges in place, the inside was still mess of unconnected pieces that needed to be carefully examined to see where they fit.

Life can also be quite a complex puzzle at times. Many of us tend to focus on the outside pieces thinking it will help get the inside pieces in place. But what if we started building the puzzle from the inside? What would the process look like and how would the picture develop?

To be honest, i've never tried to put a complex puzzle together from the inside out. I guess the first thing we would need to do is find two pieces that truly fit together, then another two pieces, and another two or maybe three. Eventually we will have bits and pieces of the picture that we can see link naturally together.

Over the years as i've been linking pieces of my life together, i've been focusing much of my effort on the outside edge because it seems to fit together more easily. Inside pieces have always been more difficult to make sense of. I have a cluster of pieces that fit together in one area and other pieces that fit together in another area. Bringing these pieces together into a complete picture has often been a challenge.

I'm sure you know the frustrating feeling when your stuck and can't make pieces fit, and then a friend helps you find a few pieces that just fit together one after another opening a partial view of the big picture. Yesterday it happened to me. I was in frustration trying to fit certain pieces of my life together, and someone helped me find an important linking piece that brought together a view I had not seen before. I don't see the big picture yet, but the view encourages and gives me hope of completing the puzzle.

Along my journey I've learned that we never see all the pieces of our puzzle. I've found others who have helped me to identify the pieces that were missing and pieces i had overlooked. And i also believe there are key pieces that only God holds, pieces that only he knows how to fit into our lives, pieces that would perplex the greatest puzzle masters or advisors.

Putting a complex puzzle together is no easy task. It's much easier with the help of others, and especially with the help of the puzzle designer Himself. So before you or your friends try to force pieces together, it's wise to listen to His advice.