dailydatewithgod

As a kid I was not too interested in puzzles as a game.  I understood the concept but tended to recoil from things that took too much concentration. Especially if it was something that I had to look at and determine a pattern or method in order to solve.  I did not like what I perceived as the barriers of having to do it right. I had enough of that pressure on myself as it was.  I was happy to try to solve a mystery by going from one thing to the next and asking questions. That would allow me to talk to people and pick their brains.  I didn’t get the fun or how it was a game to stare at something to find a connection or unscramble words.  I had my fill of puzzling experiences for which there was no information communicated and did not want to add to it.  If I was inquiring about something and got to move forward literally by asking questions, I was all for it. That felt in my domain of control.  To wait for the puzzle to open up in front of my eyes was too much pressure and there was the waiting.  And if I did not complete it as fast as someone else, I was failing.  I would grown when my mother would open up yet another jigsaw puzzle.  She loved them and could sit for hours piecing them together. Her enjoyment of them puzzled me!  Piece by piece it would come together and form a whole picture but she couldn’t ask the picture to tell her where the next piece was.  As we grow, we get to learn how to find ourselves before we have the answer or the complete picture.  The puzzles of our lives is the coming together of all the elements that make up the whole of who we are.  Sometimes we walk around with chunks of scenery missing from our story or our essence.  God always sees the full picture of who we are and knows it is there even if we cannot see it.  We are designed to be puzzled and unsettled by the missing pieces because we are designed in wholeness.  There is a beauty both in the piecing of the puzzle because of the process and the completion of the whole.  Sometimes it is about following a pattern or noticing a color scheme and how it connects with the people and ideas we encounter from day-to-day. At the end of our lives we can see the full picture and until then God is there to help us fill in the gaps.