puzzle

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.....each day has enough trouble of its own.    Matthew 6:34

Life was a slow, easy pace, at the cottage on the lake, where I spent many summers as a child.  here was always a jigsaw puzzle on the card table. Somehow it was like a magnet,   drawing me as I passed by, “Sit down, and put that one piece in.” 

Early on, we had photos of puppies and kittens in baskets with large pieces. Later, country landscapes with tiny pieces.  As soon as we’d finish one, we’d begin another. Dump out the box.  Save any pieces already stuck together for a head start. Prop up the lid so the finished picture was visible. 

Soon puzzle pieces would be scattered everywhere on the table top. Mom taught us, “Separate  the pieces with straight, outside edges. Find the four corners, and make the frame before starting the rest.”

What if there had been no cover picture to guide us and help put the pieces together?  We don’t have a lid to look at, with a finished photo, for the puzzles of our lives.  God, however, knows  exactly and precisely what the picture looks like. 

I recall my sister would pick up a piece and determinedly say, “This fits!”, as she forced the cardboard into the space. How often I try to squeeze something into my life that is not supposed to be there, not designed for that particular time and place.  

One day at a time, as we turn our lives over to Him, the Lord give us a piece for the day. “It’s a puzzlement!”...the King of Siam, to Anna, in the musical, The King and I. Yes, well, not to Someone.

That’s good news with heavenly hope.

-sally i kennedy