Puzzles

 

PUZZLES

One of my Christmas presents this year was a puzzle.  Not just any puzzle  however.  Stephen and Erin bought it for me at Norman Rockwell’s home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. That home now houses the Norman Rockwell Museum.  Rockwell’s paintings capture the moments of life that typically show a single moment with unusual significance  You know the ones that show the response of the neighborhood to the returning soldier (Homecoming G. I.) , Thanksgiving dinner (Freedom from Want), the parents looking at the sleeping child (entitled Freedom from Fear), the football tackle (Tackled), the boy who finds the Santa suit (Discovery), the young girl dreaming of the future (The Girl at the Mirror), the young boy checking his doctor’s credentials (Before the Shot).  I’m sure you have your favorites.  One of my favorites is the one that makes this puzzle, Saying Grace, the grandmother and grandson praying before their meal in a restaurant.  

I am very slowly putting pieces together, while wishing my son-in-law was here to help me.  But the puzzle pieces have left me thinking.  I have plenty of time for that since there are 1,000 pieces in the project.

Every puzzle has a creator.  Rockwell had a final picture in mind when he painted, though I am not sure he envisioned his painting being cut into a thousand pieces.  We, too, have a Creator who knows exactly what the final picture will be.

The first thing I do with a puzzle is sort the pieces to find the edges.  Once I have the edges put together the picture has an orientation.  It has parameters beyond which the  pieces cannot go.  God has set the boundaries of my life.

Each piece belongs in a specific place.  It will slip nicely into its place and it will contribute to the overall image.  Sometimes I try to force a piece into place, before realizing the picture doesn’t make sense if the piece lands there.  I sometimes try to force the pieces of my life to go where I want them to go, but it distorts the whole picture.

Puzzle making is slow going for me.  I leave it on the table for sometimes weeks, putting just a few pieces together at a time.  I wish my eyes saw the pieces quickly, as my son-in-law Bill does.  I want to rush ahead in my life.

It’s more fun to do a puzzle with someone else.  Working with someone else encourages me.  But life is sometimes lonely and there is no one else to do life with.  But there is a Saviour who says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

Eventually there are only a few pieces left, then only one.  What a sense of accomplishment.  Psalm 90:12 tells us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.  I’m counting my days, desiring to please my Lord.

What is the take away, as our pastor says?  For me this is the take away:  Proverbs 3:5 & 6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”  He knows where the puzzle pieces go and I can trust Him to put the pieces in the right places.

~~Faith Himes Lamb