A Piece of the Puzzle: God’s Masterpiece

In the entryway of my mother’s house hangs a beautiful picture of a waterfall surrounded by trees.  You’d never know the picture was made up of hundreds of puzzle pieces unless you examined the picture up close. One thousand small jig saw puzzle pieces, precisely fitted together with seams lined up perfectly, create the stunning image.

When staring at a pile of puzzle pieces poured out of a box, it’s difficult to visualize or imagine what the finished product will look like. All you see are hundreds of different shapes and sizes, all with diverse colors and images. By themselves, they look like nothing more than a complete mess–overwhelming to look at and challenging to sort through.

But with patience, persistence, hard work and time, and when each piece of the puzzle is in its own unique and proper place, the masterpiece will be revealed.

Sometimes our lives feel like the pile of mixed up puzzle pieces–pieces that we know are supposed to create some masterpiece. The problem is, we can’t see the final, bigger picture, we can only see the pile of mixed up puzzle pieces right before our eyes. We don’t know where we are meant to be, we just want to belong. So we try desperately to reshape ourselves or shave down the rough edges of our lives so we will fit in.

But only God knows what the completed masterpiece is to look like. Only God knows our shape and all of our rough edges. Only He can place us in the perfect and proper spot in His work of art. He did not call us to fit into just any space.  He called us out and unto Himself.

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  (1 Peter 2:9)

He created us in His own image. We are His masterpiece, His work of perfection. We can be confident that He will not leave us out of His puzzle. He’s begun a work in each one of us, we are each uniquely made.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ … ” (Philippians 1:6).

Every challenge, disappointment, success, failure, joy, hurt and trial has added to our lives, creating the exact shape needed to be perfectly placed in the puzzle of His masterpiece.

Will you allow God to complete the work He has begun in you? How do you see Him using a tough situation to shape you and fit you perfectly into His masterpiece?