Puzzling Pieces: Do You See Progress?

Before we discuss all things puzzles, let’s just declare a couple of promises from God. We will come back to them later. Like the pastor always says, turn to Psalm 138:8 and Psalm 121:4.

Psalm 138:8 says, “God will be faithful to complete a good work.”

Psalm 121:4 says, “He never sleeps nor slumbers.”

Every holiday season my boys and I do a small Christmas themed puzzle. We have a few different ones and we just re-do them each year. It is a tradition we have done since they were toddlers. This year I got a little over ambitious and decided to buy a 1000 piece puzzle. I wanted to stick with a Christmas-y puzzle so Kam and I went looking. The only one we could find that was slightly holiday themed was a Thomas Kinkade puzzle that had lots of snow and a sweet snowman on the left side of a cozy looking home.

Look back at the picture I posted. In the first couple days/weeks of starting this puzzle I had a couple of different friends/family come and spend some time helping me. As I made some progress one-night working on my own, I sent the picture posted above to those that had invested some time with me on the puzzle. None of them were impressed with my progress. This puzzle was so tough it took an average of 30 minutes or so to find one piece. The picture has 6 more pieces than it did when they were at my house. That equals at least 3 to 4 hours of work. But it doesn’t look like much.

How often is this scenario the case in our lives?? We want God to work in our lives but we de-value what He is doing based on our expectations. We don’t see the progress. We don’t see things changing or improving. We don’t see the 6 pieces put in place.

I sent the picture of my progress, knowing I had put some tough pieces in place that were going to set me up to do more. The recipients of my pictures could not see the work that had been done behind the scenes. They couldn’t see or consequently value the work I had done. Honestly, looking back at the pictures, I can’t see the additional pieces either. If you did not have the picture on the box as a reference, those few extra pieces were definitely not clueing you in to the end result. But they were important. They HAD to be placed. They could not be skipped. Do you see their importance now, even if you don’t really SEE their importance visually?

God is always working. We don’t always see it. Let’s be honest, no one in our life sees it. Often times, well-meaning family and friends will down play what God is doing in our lives, because they too can’t see it.

On my puzzle journey, more than once I had doubters, including myself. We joked about ‘if’ I would finish the puzzle. We joked about ‘when’ I would finish the puzzle. It may sound over dramatic, but I had lots of moments where I wanted to quit. I was done.

I recently had a long-time friend reach out and send me some sweet truths God gave her when she put together a 2000 piece puzzle recently. I loved reading her words. Each sentence caused me to pause and say, “Amen!” Honestly, my favorite part was reading that after putting together each piece, she would stop and clap.

Ummm, yes!! My whole family knew every-time they heard a cheer that I had found ONE piece. Learning to celebrate the little things kept me going. Of course, I had those moments where I celebrated the ONE piece and then did the math and realized I still had over 700 more pieces. But that couldn’t be my focus.

Something else my friend pointed out is that you can’t rush a masterpiece. That is a big truth right there and not one people are quick to be excited about. Puzzles are a time commitment. Setting out to complete a 2000 piece puzzle in a short amount of time will do nothing but frustrate you. There is a lesson there. God loves us so deeply that He won’t be found rushing the pieces of our lives. He knows the end from the beginning and sees the way the pieces fit together. Just like we start a puzzle by finding the edge pieces, God works in order too. While we want to see the whole picture at the beginning, He is working one piece at a time.

So, let’s go back to those promises that I mentioned in the beginning.

Psalm 138:8

The Lord will accomplish that which concerns me;

Your lovingkindness, O Lord, endures forever –

Do not abandon the works of Your own hands.

God is not sitting at His kitchen table putting together the pieces of your life, wondering if He will finish. He doesn’t doubt whether pieces fit, the way we do. He doesn’t even need to reference a picture on a box. He created us and the Bible says He knows the end from the beginning. He will complete what He started.

Psalm 121:4

He will not let you stumble;

The one who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps.

This promise from God is comforting on a whole new level. As a girl on a mission to finish a puzzle, I was limited. I had to rest. I had to recharge. I had to take a break. Let’s all just be thankful that we are not in charge. We are so limited. God is working for us and putting pieces of our lives in place, while we sleep. Rest in this!! Pun intended.

I remember the first time I ever trained and ran a marathon. God spoke to my heart so deeply that I was convinced everyone should do at least one in their lifetime. I am finding myself feeling the same way about puzzling (is that a word?) Everyone should commit to attempting a puzzle that just looks a little beyond their skill level and see what you learn. The lessons are far beyond matching colors and shapes. The lessons run deep.

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