I believe that life is like one great big puzzle. When we are in our mother’s womb, all the pieces are neatly packed away and waiting to be put together. Everything is taken care of for us and we have no worries. When we are born, this is the time that the pieces are dumped out on the table. We spend the first several years of our lives turning the pieces over and attempting to organize them. Thankfully, this is the time that our parents are helping us. They help us understand that life comes in pieces and they help us turn each piece over so that we can see that there is a purpose for each piece.

As we continue to grow, each of us realizes that the pieces are meant to be put together and that each piece only fits in its proper place. We start searching for how to place each piece together. In the beginning it is more of a game, and we do it haphazardly. As we mature the need to make each of the pieces fit together to make a whole begins to grow stronger. We are no longer satisfied with just getting two pieces to fit together. We want the entire puzzle to make an image that will tell us the direction of our lives. We often want to jump ahead and finish the puzzle before it is time. We become frustrated if the pieces do not fit together easily and quickly.

Often we elicit the help of others to make the pieces fit. Sometimes these people are well-intentioned, and they do help us make some of the pieces fit together. Other times, however, these people are not helpful. They encourage us to place the wrong pieces together in an attempt to force them to fit. Sometimes these people attempt to take some of our pieces and try to make them fit into their own puzzle. This causes us to lose some of our pieces, and we realize that with these people in our lives the puzzle will never be complete. Often when people encounter such struggles, they give up, and the puzzle sits incomplete on the table for many years.

Eventually, we realize that we need to resume working on the puzzle. We begin again, sometimes having to start all over. We find all of the missing pieces and slowly begin to place them back together. As each piece comes together, we can start to see the direction that our life is supposed to take. As the puzzle nears completion and the number of pieces left on the table begins to dwindle, we start having confidence that we are doing the right thing. It is our job to keep working on our puzzle and not to get in a hurry. Soon, working on our puzzle becomes something we look forward to doing every single day. It may take years to get the puzzle to fit together, but we become okay with that and realize that we should celebrate each time we get a piece to fit in its proper place. We realize that the puzzle is a lesson for us. It teaches us to be patient, it teaches us to try to make each piece fit and when it doesn’t, it teaches us to keep working. You see if two pieces do not fit together perfectly, the puzzle will not be right.

We can apply this principle to our own lives. We sometimes get in a hurry and want the secret of life to be revealed to us. When it isn’t, we become discouraged and want to quit or force the pieces together. God wants us to be patient and to lean on Him. He will help us put the pieces together, and He will bring people into our lives to help us figure out the difficult pieces. He does not want us to get ahead of ourselves. If we completed the puzzle in one day, we would not appreciate the journey and we would not learn anything from it. We also could never help someone with his or her puzzle if we did not learn anything from putting our own puzzle together.

So, take your time. Have patience and continue working on your puzzle even when you get frustrated. Look to the people who have been placed in your life to help you. Listen to your heart and rely on God. With that combination, your puzzle will begin to fit together and you will have peace, and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~