What is the largest, most complicated puzzle you have ever worked on? I have done so many puzzles these last two winters while shut in through COVID. Now they've become a 'go to' between writing. I work and juggle ideas around just like the pieces to that puzzle. When you see all the pieces in a pile and then look at the picture of what it can be, it feels like a long stretch in between. I usually start with the border. That often gives me a place to start, (first chapter) and then the colours! Separating the bright shades are like my characters. It's always nice to find a piece with a significant marking that is on the cover picture. I'll add pieces around that even though it isn't ready to be joined up to any other parts of the puzzle yet. It's like 'the new character' but not sure where she or he will fit into my story. I'll keep adding a piece here& there and as I find them it begins to link to the picture. Life can be similar. Can you see where I'm going here? Isn't our life sometimes like a jigsaw puzzle? A puzzle has the picture we like, resembling ideas in our head of what we want, plans with our family etc. But sometimes it's hard or difficult to find all those pieces.
However, we keep going, even though it looks impossible to get them all to work together. Sometimes I just want to throw them back into the box & put it back on the shelf. But if I persevere, piece by piece they will become clear. Putting that last piece in place... the scene in front of me, is the finished product. Relating to my book again... page by page, right to 101 and my reward... the last two words: 'The End'.
I'm sure that's how the Lord sees us. We work putting the pieces together as we walk
our road of life, picking up more, we keep putting them in place and eventually we have our own picture... no longer a huge tangled mess of pieces. It has become visible, something of beauty, but we did quite a bit of work to get there. We didn't just drop them out of the box and they all fell into place. They had to be worked one by one. Every road we have gone down has added to our picture. There's probably a thousand & more for our picture to come together. Keep going forward, while learning to treasure every piece we find that fits into our life. Everyone has some pieces we wish weren't there but hopefully we've had healing, forgiveness & gained wisdom.
Be encouraged today, Dear Reader. The pieces of the puzzle in your life are coming together. Although, even if it seems to only be one piece at a time.
If you are puzzling over what to do next, keep praying for direction and keep on going. The main thing is you keep working at it. That is the secret of life. That is the joy of walking with the Lord. He will make sure we have all the pieces that we need and our picture will be complete one day. That is His PROMISE to those of us who follow Him. I have taken out an old puzzle and found at the end after searching and searching, there were a couple pieces missing & never to be found. However my picture was still beautiful, not perfect, but completed anyways. Truthfully, I couldn't remember what those missing pieces lost from the past, even looked like. Blessings, Dear Readers.
Excerpt from the book "101 Roads" by Marlane Lillian Mazur.
Comments