Growing up I fell in love with putting jigsaw puzzles together. I believe it came from my Dad. We would spend time pouring over odd-shaped puzzles, 1000-piece puzzles, and everything in between. Looking back, I think our brains are wired similarly… solving puzzles and putting things together.
I was blessed to find a husband who has the same love and ability to put things together. As he was growing up he would put puzzles together a couple of times and then turn them over and complete them without the images.
I am sooo lucky to be surrounded by such smart men!
When we got married, Kevin and I started a tradition of buying a family puzzle every Christmas. Every year we search to find the perfect puzzle that will challenge us and keep the family interested. We have a wonderful collection of puzzles that are meaningful and different sizes.
Last Christmas as we were selecting our puzzle, we decided we needed a bigger challenge. We settled on a 6000-piece puzzle of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. We had no idea how large and intense it would be… but in for a penny in for a pound.
Over the past 4 months we have asked ourselves:
- what are we thinking?
- can we do this?
- do we even want to do this?
- will we ever finish this?
- will it have all of the pieces?
- are we legit crazy?
We had to celebrate every little piece we put into place. With 6000 pieces, that is a lot of celebrating. We would stare at colors, shapes, and patterns for hours, not knowing where to put anything.
It seemed like all of a sudden little things would fall into place. A set of pieces would connect with others and slowly but surely it began to take shape. When we stood up and looked at the bigger picture, we could see progress and the beauty of the image.
The puzzle began to be symbolic of our lives right now. It seems like there are so many pieces of it in a proverbial box waiting to be put together. And the more we stare at certain aspects of it, the less it makes sense. Sometimes we take pieces out of our box, look at them, try to put them together, and out of frustration, we throw them back in (putting them in time-out).
One of the images in the puzzle is God reaching out to Adam to give him life. I have come to love that part of the picture. I love to imagine God reaching out His hand to put the pieces of my puzzle into place, to give my life the meaning He sees it to have.
When I step back and watch, I can see God masterfully taking the pieces of my life out of the box and carefully placing them where He sees that they fit. He always works on the parts of my puzzle that need to be built so that I can move forward…giving me life.
A few days ago we finished the puzzle…and all of the pieces were there!!! WE felt a HUGE sense of accomplishment! We freaking did that!
And Heavenly Father is doing that with us too!!!! Piece by piece He is creating a masterpiece within us…how beautiful is that?!?!
Own Who You Are 