Have you ever felt like your life is one big puzzle—like you were born as a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle—and each year, thousands more pieces have been added, but now with some pieces missing?
Even though your parents might have assembled some of this puzzle for you as you were growing up, does it seem like you have had to figure out the rest by yourself? Have you tried really hard to put your puzzle together, only to have a major event, or even a tragedy, come and break apart hundreds of the assembled pieces, like a large puzzle on a table that has been pushed partially over the edge, with pieces missing? Or did you ever feel like someone put all of your pieces into a box abruptly, and then shelved them out of sight for several months, or even years?
Maybe you feel like you aren’t able to figure out where many of the pieces belong, and everybody you ask for help doesn’t want to be bothered. Or, even worse, they do ‘help’ by forcing pieces of your puzzle into the wrong place! Maybe it seems like someone slips in and steals the very pieces missing you need when you aren’t looking.
Have you reached a point in your life where you just can’t seem to find the final pieces missing that would make your puzzle complete? In fact, do you even know what the finished puzzle of your life is supposed to look like? Does anybody know?
Only God Knows What Our Life’s Puzzle Looks Like
There is someone who does know you and the way your puzzle will turn out, even better than you know yourself. This ‘someone’ is God. He knew you before you were even conceived. “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee…” (Jeremiah 1:5), the Bible tells us. When God created human beings, it was never His intention for them to function solely on their own. God wants you to be dependent on Him.
The problem often is that, knowingly or unknowingly, you left Him at some point; but He will never willingly leave you. “And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 31:8). If He ever does withdraw from you, it is only because you do not want Him. This means that you want to do it your way, or do it by yourself, instead.
When you look at your life as a complex puzzle that you can’t totally assemble, you are looking at it from the angle of your own strength and understanding. All of your struggles and fears or worries and confusion come from trying to solve a situation that you can’t possibly solve by yourself.
You’ll Never Find the Pieces Missing in Your Own Efforts
Even if you go to someone else to help find the pieces missing and solve your puzzle, you are still sidestepping God. The only way to achieve complete satisfaction—real and lasting happiness and victory over life’s situations—is to surrender your life and all of your attempts to solve this puzzle by yourself over to God.
God is the only One who knows what the picture on the puzzle of your life will look like when it is complete. When He first formed you, He did not include the supposedly pieces missing in your puzzle. He did this because He wants to be the One to complete your puzzle. He wants to fill that void in your heart that nothing else can fill.
No matter what you try to do on your own to make your puzzle complete, without Him, it will never work. There will always be pieces missing.
You might try to cut up a piece from another puzzle and force it in, or you may try to make your own pieces. Either way, improper replacements will only leave you feeling empty inside in the end. Let Him complete your puzzle in the way that He knows is best. No other way will satisfy.
If you are interested more about completing your life’s puzzle with God, then take a look at our page on The Way to God.
{Additional image credits: Featured image (when applicable) by Zhu Jia Bin on Unsplash; Opening image by Richard Reid on Pixabay]
