Life is Like a Puzzle
For Christmas, one of our children bought us a 1,000 piece puzzle. Cyndi and I worked on it and finally got it finished the other evening. We have enjoyed working these over the years and, this was the first one we had done in a while. As we were working it, there were some things that came to my attention.
First, the pieces were scattered everywhere in no set sequence. As a matter of fact, we had to move it to a bigger table in order to have room for all of the pieces. Sometimes we get so involved and there is so much to do that we don’t know which way we should go. And on top of all the things we are trying to do, other things keep coming at us, so we wonder if we will ever catch up.
Secondly, some of the pieces were so near the same color that they could have gone more than one place. There are times that it seems like everything is working to perfection, only to find out it is not as we thought. It is then that we can get discouraged and maybe even have a desire to give up.
Then we found that some of the pieces almost fit but not quite. The hammer I was using to get them to fit made too much noise so we quit using it (actually, we never used a hammer, just our fist). Do we ever try to force something to happen the way we want?
And finally some of the pieces had fallen off the board and we spent a lot of time looking for something that was not there. It is easy to sometimes get lost in the things that are happening around us. We must stay focused on the most important things and realize that life does not always happen the way we desire it.
God’s word is full of encouragement when we have much to do, when things seem to be right but may not be, when everything is not going as I think it should or when we lose our way. Listen to our Lord, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 (NASB)
And then Paul encourages us, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Galatians 6:9
Let’s make sure we keep our focus on the spiritual and always follow our God. It may be a struggle at times, but the reward at the end is worth it!