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Good morning, dear friends! Sitting here this morning, watching the deer in the yard, reminds me that life was meant to be lived with much more simplicity than we humans often understand. The deer seem to have few concerns -- eating, playing, and being aware of any danger surrounding them. They don't appear to have any other concerns. Content to live within the boundaries that are God-given. Wouldn't we do well to learn from them?
Recently, I was so very blessed to spend a day with a dear, old friend. She is 90 years young. We've been friends for a lifetime, it seems. Over the years, one of the things I have appreciated about her is that she has always seemed to "go with the flow" and live her life in the moment, content with wherever she is at any given stage of life. Like all of us, I know there were so many times in her life that could have been cause for grumbling and complaining and fighting the course her life had taken, but in my mind, she has almost always fit into whatever was going on around her, whether living here or there. She just seems to always fit into her surroundings. How I adore this dear woman.
One of the things we did on this recent day was to put a puzzle together. As we lay the pieces of the puzzle out on the table we would be working at, I looked at it and thought, "This may take all day!" Not having much experience with puzzles, it looked like a grueling task ahead of us to me. Not for "grandma".
We began by placing the box on its side so that we could gaze at what the puzzle was to look like when finished. Grandma said that the first step was to set our boundaries, so we began sorting through the pieces, finding all those with straight edges on one side, while searching for corner pieces. She worked on the sky side, while I worked on the grass. When we finally got near completing the boundaries, there was just one piece left to fit in, and it seemed like none of the pieces belonged there. Grandma kind of insisted, a few times, that this one piece just had to go there, pushing and trying to make it fit.
You know, our lives are a bit of a puzzle, aren't they? We don't have the box to look at, to know what the finished picture will look like, do we? How much time we spend trying to make all the pieces fit! How often we push and press down the circumstances of our lives trying to make them fit. Is it because subconsciously we have that box in our minds? We just know, according to what that box looks like in our minds, that "this piece should fit here." Even though we can obviously see that the pieces aren't coming together, we persist in our pushing and arranging to make it all fit together. Time and time again…though we clearly see it isn't working. We keep trying. It only leads to frustration and a feeling of giving up, finally saying, "It just doesn't fit here." At that point, just like the puzzle grandma and I were working on, we cease striving. We finally sit back and look at the puzzle, this time through different eyes. This time, we've let go of our own agenda to make it fit there, and just sit quietly, waiting. We gaze back at the picture on that box, with no agenda other than to understand how the pieces are all fitting together…how this flower locks into the leaves and goes on to lock into the thorns. That makes sense. The mountains drift off into the grays and then the blues of the sunlit sky. A gradual drift and we like that. It seems like once we gaze at that box long enough, it all begins to come together and fall into place. Each piece has been designed to fit into its place and create a beautiful finished picture to look upon and appreciate.
Grandma and I worked at that puzzle for a few hours, while our bellies began to send out hungry signals to each of us. We were very determined, though, that we would not stop for lunch until this puzzle was finished, so we worked on it. It was getting so lovely to look at. Finally, finally, we were down to the very last pieces; three of them, but they were missing.
Did we do this puzzle only to let it sit with just three pieces missing? We looked all over the table, but finally found that they had fallen on the floor beneath our feet. With relief and joy, we finally put the last pieces of that puzzle together and sat there, gazing at all the beauty of our hard work. We even took a picture of us with the puzzle, as a reminder of a great day together and a job completed. We felt accomplished.
Dear reader, are you just as I am -- trying over and over to make the pieces of your puzzled life fit together, with much frustration when it just isn't working? Do we forget that God had it all planned out from before even one of our days came to be? Can't we see, again, that all of our pushing and rearranging hasn't worked in the past and again, the pieces we are trying to make fit never will? They weren't designed to! Just as the designer of that puzzle had a unique plan for it all coming together into one majestic work of art, so our Father has His plans for each of us. When we finally, finally, give up all our efforts to make it what we want it to be, only then, can we begin to see the pieces He has for us to put into place.
There is a puzzle that hangs on my wall, inside a beautiful wooden frame made for me by my son. It has one piece, very obviously chewed up by my little Chihuahua, for all to see. That piece isn't on the edge of the puzzle, hardly noticeable. No, it's in plain view. Our family has laughed at that chewed up piece at times, as though the puzzle is ruined by that mangled piece. To me, it's perfect! It represents my life, and yours. John 14:6 is the theme of this puzzle, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through Me." The scenery is breath-taking, a Thomas Kincaid setting -- a lovely, white church with thriving trees all around the church. A bridge covering a stream, flowing ever so gently past the house of God. A lantern, lit and waiting on the other side of that bridge…waiting to lead us to the place where we find Him waiting. We'll find peace within the walls of His house. We'll lay it all down there and give all the mangled pieces of our lovely puzzle to Jesus. We'll take our eyes off of ourselves awhile and rest there, gazing upon His beauty, basking in His Presence. As we do, the misfit pieces of our lives will begin to make sense to us. We may even begin to embrace all the messy, chewed up pieces of our own making. We can relax in His plan for us and realize that after all of our own planning, God can still make something beautiful from all our striving.
Jeremiah 29 offers some insight into our messy lives. The Lord says, "For I know the plans I have for you -- plans for good and not for evil, to give you a hope and a future." Friend, if you find yourself wallowing in sadness or confusion, or living in rebellion because life hasn't handed you a pretty picture, read on in Jeremiah. "You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you. I will restore you. " You can trust Him. You can know that even if there have been chewed up pieces of your life, God will still use those in the making of your masterpiece. First and foremost, set your boundaries to your puzzled life. Make sure that Jesus is your Savior, and then trust Him to make it all come together and fit into the places He designed, just for you. It will be absolutely breathtaking and the world just may get a closer look at the Lord through you, friend, brokenness and all. It's all beautiful in His sight!
Soon, I hope to spend another day with my dear friend. It's so good to slow down and "smell the roses," places in our lives that bless us, and encourage us to keep on living the life we've been so blessed with. In the company of my 90-year-young "grandma," I can remember, I can see once more, how all the pieces of my own messy puzzle are fitting together. Her company fills my heart, as I listen to the stories again, of a life lived in faith and even joy in the midst of messiness. I can only bow my head and say, "Thank You, Lord, for putting another piece of my puzzle in place. Thank You, for not letting me to mess up what You had planned, before even one of my days came to be. Thank You for the boundaries of my life, and for all the pieces that I can't understand…yet I will trust You. My life may be a masterpiece yet, if I keep my eyes on Your plans and not my own. Then, and only then, it all fits together, for my good, and hopefully, for Your glory!" Amen!
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Debby Renninger is a freelance writer and inspirational speaker. She holds a Bible study in her home in McVeytown, where seeking women are always welcome. She may be reached at (717) 250-7086 for speaking engagements.