When the pieces just won't fit.

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What is it about jigsaw puzzles? I find myself pulling out puzzles during the most stressful and chaotic times in our lives.

Maybe it’s because it gives me a quiet mental space to think as it quiets my body and focuses my eyes and hands.

Maybe it’s the peace of putting in ear buds with my audio Bible and listening while I simply sit (something I’m often not good at doing).

Maybe it’s soothing to bring order to chaos when nothing else in my life seems to fit together.

Maybe it’s just comforting to know that even when I can’t figure out where something fits, it DOES fit, somehow, in this larger picture. I just can’t see it yet.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that if the piece doesn’t fit, but really looks like it should fit, it still won’t fit there no matter how many times I try. But I often keep trying. I want to force it in there somehow.

Trusting God is a little like putting together a puzzle. Often we sit among heaps of broken pieces. We know He has a plan. We know somehow everything fits together. Sometimes we can see it clearly and suddenly a number of pieces go together quickly and make sense. It’s so satisfying.

Sometimes, we are just stuck. And we want, so badly want, this piece to make sense here- and it just doesn’t. No matter how many times we try to jam it in place.

Many of us are sitting in broken chaos right now. I’m watching us all grasp for a semblance of control, even if it’s just posting Facebook rants or defying government advisories or maybe clamping down extra tight on protecting our families. What is the point of this? It just looks like... a mess.

We need to resist the urge to explain how God will make this fit together. We just don’t know. That piece might look like that’s where it goes... but we can trust that He has a beautiful picture in mind. We just can’t see it yet. Maybe we won’t this side of eternity.

And so, I will look for the beauty in this day. In this piece. I will hold it and thank Him for its unique shade of blue. I will rest in the promise that He has the picture on the front of the box, that nothing is random, nothing is out of His hand.

I can rest and put the pieces in order He has entrusted to me. I can listen to His Word. I can be still. Be still and KNOW - that He is God.

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