A puzzling season

 

I've gotten on a puzzle kick lately.  Perhaps it sparked from a little boredom from the winter months, maybe a bit of a need for a "mindless" activity to curb some anxiety over a lot of things on my mind and plate. But all I know is that once I got started, I was hooked. Just as soon as I finished one puzzle, I'd start another. I'd have one going on my desk at home and another one going at the back table at school. There's something so rewarding, challenging, and yet relaxing about doing a puzzle. 

Puzzles make me think about the seasons of our lives. Some seasons can really "puzzle us". And just like those puzzling seasons, we have to come up with a strategy to get through it or our life will just sit in pieces. As I carefully worked on and strategized each of these puzzles pictured, I couldn't help but see how much my puzzle strategies mirrored the way we confront life through brokenness. 

For starters, when all I see are hundreds, if not thousands, of unconnected pieces, I look for the edge pieces first. Then I group those edge pieces with like colors so I can start trying to connect them together. Once I have the border done, I know more about the overall size of the problem, and I have an overall framework. I start at the outside and work my way in. Basically, I have a big picture to work with, and I never lose sight of that big picture as I work to connect each little piece inside. 

When life starts to fall apart and then shatters into a thousand little pieces, looking at the big picture helps us through the overwhelm, reminding us of a bigger purpose already designed. Even when all we have is a border, it reminds us that the small piece we're living will somehow fit into that big picture and will connect perfectly with other pieces I haven't found yet. It's like a promise that my current piece isn't random. 

Once I get the border done, I then sort the remaining inside pieces by color and pattern so I can work through the puzzle one small section at a time. Like colors go with like colors, and that helps me know what can and can't go together. Once I finish connecting all the pinks together, I move on to the greens, the blues, the oranges, and the reds. When there are several colors mixed, I look for similar line patterns that make the connections more visible. 

When life feels so disconnected and overwhelming, I look for the things that do make sense and find the connections that stand out. The easy-to-notice, obvious ways that God has provided and come through for me. I can see how many things in life have easily and clearly fallen into place, and I thank God for those connections. 

After I have the obvious colors and patterns connected, I'm left with the remaining pieces that have multiple colors and patterns mixed that don't seem to fit anywhere. Sometimes I can connect several of them together but still can't figure out how that small section fits in. Until I finally figure out that I had it upside down or that it all fit in after I found one specific piece that I hadn't seen yet. 

These pieces are the hard parts of life that don't make any sense. They can seem so random and out of place, like they belong in another puzzle box, to another picture. But at times we're just looking at it from the wrong perspective, and once we turn it sideways or upside-down, it fits. Or perhaps it truly doesn't fit until we find or experience that one unsuspecting event that turns out to be the piece that connects it all together perfectly. 

The puzzle can really start coming together until you're left with those last few pieces that might just be all the same color or pattern, like the rest of the light blue sky or the dark green grass. To finish up that last tedious section, sometimes we have to readjust our focus from the color and pattern on the piece to the specific shape of the piece. The shape can tell us where it definitely doesn't fit and can help us narrow down the one and only place it will connect just right--to the pieces above, below, and all around it. 

When we finally get towards the end of a particularly puzzling season, when we've seen God work things out and paint a better picture than we ever expected, we're still left with those last few pieces that can honestly just blur together. The pieces that we keep turning to God for, asking him how they fit and why they have to be there. Can't we just be done already and move on? So we just focus on our survival skills until the season comes to an end, putting one foot in front of the other, taking our eyes off of the picture and just making it work. 

One by one, the pieces fit together, and then we put that last piece in to complete the puzzle. It's such a rewarding feeling to know you persevered, you strategized, you made a battle plan, and you accomplished your mission! And now you have this beautiful picture made out of all these pieces that didn't seem connected at all. 

There's nothing like seeing God give you that last piece of a puzzling season, finally seeing how each piece truly did matter for the picture to be complete. To see how certain events that made absolutely no sense actually connected perfectly with other events to paint a picture you never would have imagined. 

I love seeing a puzzle come together, both on a table and in my life. I love making new connections that I didn't see at first. It got me thinking that every season of our lives is like a puzzle that eventually comes together and makes sense. But it also got me thinking about God's perspective, how all of our little puzzles will eventually all fit together into one giant puzzle. All of our own personal puzzles are connected to everyone else's personal puzzles, and they all create one large picture of God's story that He's revealed to us through Scripture and that He's continuing to bring to pass. A picture of eternity. The big picture we should always look back to and remember that we're all part of a bigger story.