Puzzle Pieces

Have you ever bought a jigsaw puzzle at a garage sale? It’s kinda risky. With used puzzles, you can never be sure if all the pieces will be there. But…if you really like puzzles, it may be fun to give it a try.

Lets say that the puzzle pieces were simply in a plastic bag with no picture attached. Would you buy it then? Unless you are quite the adventurous type and you really, really liked puzzles, that sack of puzzle bits will stay right where it is.
Have you ever noticed that our lives tend to resemble a sack of puzzle bits? We have lots of parts and have to work frantically at times trying to piece it all together with out the benefit of a picture to go by.

Here’s the Good News: Jesus really, really likes puzzles. He is constantly checking out the ‘yard sales’ in hopes of finding another puzzle to put together. He even buys us with the full knowledge that some of our pieces are tweaked, tattered and torn. Some are missing. That’s okay, because if we are willing to be bought by the Lord it becomes His responsibility to fit all the pieces together.

Now, when I begin to work on a puzzle, I like to start with the outside parts. It seems to me that if I can get the outside finished, the inside of the puzzle comes together more easily. Jesus has a different strategy. He seems to know that the outside will take shape as the insides are worked on. And, since God has the finished picture for each one of us, He is able to work systematically in our lives putting all the right pieces in all the right places.
So, what does that look like from our point of view?

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