Jigsaw....

Before we got out for our Christmas break, my students enjoyed a party planned by some of the parents. The kids had a great time. One of the games the kids played was a race to put together jigsaw puzzles. The first team to complete their puzzle was the winner. Directions were given to be careful to not lose any of the pieces and to be sure that each piece went in its correct place. When the word was given, each team quickly began assembling their puzzle.

Each puzzle was different and each team went about completing the task at hand differently. Most started by turning each piece face up and studying the picture on the box. Many then began locating the side pieces. It seems it is easier to get the outer frame of the picture together first and then fill in the center. Some worked as a group with the full picture, while others divided the picture in to sections and some worked with the dark pieces that seemed to go together while others worked with the lighter pieces. Each color grouping was sorted to see if they would go together. Then there were those pieces that were a mixture of every color and seemed to go anywhere in the puzzle.

The pieces were in every shape and size imaginable. The kids soon realized that they could not compare their puzzle to those around them, because each puzzle was different with the final product being as unique as the grouping of kids working together. Some puzzles even seemed more difficult than the others, but each came with the same set of plans. They were all 100 piece puzzles. All were of animals. Each group started with the same number of workers and at the same time. However, each puzzle was completed in its own time and in its own way.

There were the usual problems too. There were those who could not work together. There were pieces that just would not fit where they were intended to go. There were pieces that seemed to be the same, but with very important minor differences that dictated which direction it would go. There were those that seemed to go together, but really were meant for different purposes. Then, as there always seems to be, there was a lost piece to a puzzle. Without that pieces, the team could not finish and could not win. They went crazy seeking and searching everywhere for the lost piece. No one sat idlely by waiting for it to myteriously reappear on its own. No one gave up either on finding the very important final piece.

In the end, all pieces were successfully put together to reveal a beautiful picture. None of the puzzles were simple but they all were completed and their creators were very happy.

As I have thought about these puzzles I have been reminded of my family and other families. Whether they are a 30 piece or 100 piece puzzle, they are each part of a great family. Each piece/person is designed to go in a specific place and to fill a specific role. Some pieces are more difficult to fit in to the picture. Some are so unique in their design that there is no doubt where they are to go. Others are so very similar that it is hard to distinquish one from the other. There are those who make up the frame of the family picture and hold all the rest of us together. Those which border and give shape to the family and are the ones that may seem more worn than others. Then there are those that make up the middle and add so much detail and life to the family. And as with puzzles, there are those few members that get lost. But without those pieces, the family picture is not complete. Each one is special and each one is needed to make us complete. I'm sure that our creator must be desperately seeking out each one that is lost and longs to restore them to their family.

As I looked around our celebrations this Christmas and I saw the many different pieces of our family, I noticed those who were missing. Without them, our story, our picture is incomplete. You only get to see a part of who we are when we have holes in our puzzle. Those holes also leave us with feelings of longing and sadness. They remind us that we are not complete and that there are those we love that are lost and may never be restored to us. I am reminded that God's timing and His plan are not something that I can understand or control. I do trust that as He continues to put the pieces of our family back together that He does have a picture of who we will be in the end.