Puzzling

Lately I've been into working jigsaw puzzles. My passion for puzzles began when I discovered the on-line daily puzzles on msn games. Each day three fresh puzzles are posted, and I began to work them over breakfast.

It didn't take long for me to decide that maybe I needed to purchase some real puzzles that would take longer than 10 or 15 minutes to put together. So... out I went to Wal-Mart to feed my new found enthusiasm.

Puzzles are relaxing. I also believe they're good for your brain. But there's something else that I'm beginning to understand from puzzles... It has to do with discernment.

When I'm working a puzzle, I like to sort out the pieces that I think will go together into groups. Then as I work on one part of the puzzle or another, the process of finding the right piece is made easier because I don't have to look all over the table. What I find, however, is that sometimes I've sorted a piece into the wrong group. I think, for example that I have a piece of sky, but what I really have is part of a chair...

Invariably there's a point in my puzzle working where I begin to look more closely at each piece of puzzle to discern if I have it in the proper pile. And just as invariably, I find that what I thought was part of one thing is really something very different.

I think that life is very like a jigsaw puzzle (maybe that's why I like them so much). It's a beautiful whole, but broken up into many - sometimes bewildering - pieces. Just when you think you've got everything sorted out, you find a piece that doesn't fit. When it happens in life it's very frustrating, but jigsaw puzzles are teaching me to slow down and look more closely. What doesn't fit in one part of the puzzle fits beautifully into its proper place.

May God grant us eyes that see (discern) and minds that understand how everything in my life and yours fits together to complete a glorious picture of His grace and mercy.