The Puzzle Piece
Growing up, I remember a puzzle my mom kept that my Papa Joe put together and gave to her. It was one of those that had the tiny pieces….at least 1,500-2,000 of them. It was a boat out in the ocean with a beautiful sky surrounding it.
I wonder how long it took him to put that puzzle together? Did he spend hours or days doing it? Did he dump it out and sort the outside pieces from the middle pieces? Did he put the corners out first or try to start with the first two pieces he could find to fit together? Did he find joy in putting every piece where it belonged?
What would have happened if he would have done all that work and one piece of that puzzle would have been missing? Would he have tried to cut other pieces in half to make them fit? Would he have looked all over his office to find that one missing piece? Would he have taken the time to frame it and give it to my mom with a hole in it? Would it have been considered completed with that one tiny piece gone?
You see…he needed all the pieces for the puzzle to be completed and for the picture to come together and be just what it was meant to be. Each tiny piece was designed for a specific spot and purpose within that puzzle. Each piece mattered. Each piece counted. Each piece was made in a way that no other piece could do the purpose it was created to do. Each piece connected together helped the other pieces do what they were designed to do. So much importance found in one piece.
We are a lot like these puzzle pieces. In God’s grand design, puzzle if you will, He created each of us with so much importance. We matter. We count. We are needed for the puzzle to be completed. Without us, there would be a hole that no one else could fill.
Psalms 139:13-18 is a scripture passage that we all need to keep hidden in our hearts and minds for those moments when we wonder why we are here on this earth and if we really have a purpose.
It says: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand- when I awake, I am still with you.
He spent so much time creating each and every one of us….working on us and knitting us together. We are fearfully and wonderfully made by Him, created in His image! The thoughts that He has about us outnumber the grains of sand….that is a lot! In Zephaniah 3:17 it says that He takes great delight in us and rejoices over us with singing!
I know you may think you are just a tiny piece here on this earth…but your tiny piece has great value and the puzzle is not complete without YOU in it.
No one else can fit where you fit.No one else can do what God created you to do.No one else has the purpose that you have.No one else was knit together the way you were.
So from now on, just remember…every puzzle piece is needed and every piece brings something to the table.
Yes….that means you.
Now go find where you fit in the puzzle.
