Jig-saw puzzles.  Some people think life is like a jig-saw puzzle because you start with the easy stuff – like kindergarten or the border – and then you work your way in.  And when you get to the hard parts of life you can describe them as being like “the navy-blue sky of a jig-saw puzzle.”

Jig-saw puzzles.  Oh, let’s talk about the joy of putting in that very last piece!  Can you feel it?  You’ve struggled over and over to find so many crazy pieces.  Some pieces simply seem forever, absolutely forever lost and then they are found.  Slowly – ever so slowly – the picture has come together and now; the very last piece is in!

It’s funny how so much of life works like this.  For example, relationships often start out like the outside of a puzzle.  It’s easy to put up the frame, but it gets harder when we want to get inside.  At first, we might glimpse the picture on the box, but takes effort to make it come alive.

I think that Jesus would have been a big fan of jig-saw puzzles because he liked to talk about the lost pieces – you know, the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost, hurting people.

And I’ll bet Jesus really enjoyed seeing the pieces fit together – such as his post-resurrection conversation with Peter on the shores of Galilee.  Or consider how Jesus’ brother James didn’t believe, and later became a leader of the faith.  Or how about this one:  How Saul persecuted and tried to destroy the early church, only to become one of the most influential church leaders of all time.

I think that you and I are like those jigsaw puzzles that are still being put together.  Sometimes pieces seem like they are missing, and sometimes we have huge victories as it all comes together.

But piece by piece, God is working in our lives, as long as we allow him to do so.  God sees the complete picture of who he truly made us to be.

Let’s pray, Dear Jesus, thank you so much for working in our lives.  For patiently helping us, piece by piece to be the best picture of ourselves.  For always being there for us, ready to help, ready to give us your strength and peace and joy – if we will just let you.  Please help us to let you.  We want to be the beautiful picture you created us to be.