Anatomy of a Puzzle

A Lesson Learned: by Robin Thomas

I love puzzles. I have been carrying a beautiful lion puzzle around for about 2 years. Back and forth to our coastal retreat it goes. I rarely sit down and work them because they are so time consuming, however, during this whole “shelter in place” life I have plenty of time. Puzzles are a great analogy to life.

My daughter and I started on this puzzle, it was beautiful, full of color and brilliance.

Defining the outside was the easy part, we got it in place in about an hour, but the middle was a whole different story. Where to start?

Life is full of so many beautiful possibilities. We define the borders of our life and we make a plan for what WE want to fill it, but then we realize that it is harder than we thought.

There are so many pieces and I just don’t see how they are ever going to go together.

As hours were going by working on this puzzle I realized that you need to narrow the focus. Pick a color or a feature because when you just look at all the missing pieces you feel overwhelmed. It’s like that in life too, sometimes you just need to start somewhere. Set a goal for a day, or an hour so that you can start to get some of the puzzle worked out.

A couple of times with my puzzle I had a piece put in that looked like it belonged, but when I tried to put any pieces in around it they wouldn’t fit. Some activities in your life might seem perfectly fine until you try to balance it with the other pieces of your life and there is just not enough time, or the schedule doesn’t work with your other responsibilities. Sometimes you have to take a piece out so the others will fit.

I was looking for a particular puzzle piece that was yellow with red stripes. I looked at each piece, on the floor and I began to wonder if my son took it so he could put in the last piece? I became irrational. When things in our lives don’t seem to work we become quick to blame or accuse, but in reality all we need is a new perspective. The piece that fit wasn’t what I thought it would look like at all. It had been right there the whole time. How many times have we missed the right road because we thought we knew what it looked like, but it didn’t fit our expectations?

I found that about 8 hours in to this puzzle I was becoming obsessive. I’ll find just one more piece and then I will go to bed. When I went to bed I was still thinking about where the pieces might go. That’s called stress. I was stressing about a puzzle that was supposed to bring me joy. We sometimes take things that are meant to bring joy and make them an obsession. Sports, reading books, even spending time with our families. Take a breath, expect less, or as the bumper sticker states, “Wag more, Bark less.”

LIFE is a puzzle, it has many pieces and the Lord knows where each one of them goes to make it work because we are “Fearfully and Wonderfully made.”

Psalm 139 (NASB)

13 For You formed my inward parts: You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” 15 My ]frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.