“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105
Recently I attempted to complete a simple puzzle with my grandson Kaleb, who is three. In my way of thinking, the way the twenty-four pieces were cut gave little clue as to where they should be placed. I studied an oddly-shaped piece with blue, black, and a splash of orange in the corner, wondering what it was and where it should go.
“That’s Goofy,” Kaleb informed me. “He’s orange.”
This little guy knows something about the picture we’re trying to complete, I realized. “So whose white hand is this?” I asked.
“That’s Mickey. He goes up here.”
“Isn’t there a picture to help us? Where’s the box?”
He produced the small box, but I hesitate to admit that I still had trouble with the puzzle. I did not know the size of the picture, and we had to shift sections to new places to fit other pieces. We finally laughed when we had Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto together and in their correct spots.
As I pondered my difficulty, God seemed to tap me on the shoulder. “Isn’t this puzzle something like your life? Are you able to see the big picture? Do all the pieces fit together easily?”
My mind drifted to a verse I learned as a child: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). I’m grateful that even when the pieces of my life are not fitting together smoothly, God is able to shed some light on the bigger picture. He sees the beginning and the end and everything in between.
When I struggle to mesh the schedules of the three generations who share our home, I know I can trust God for wisdom. While His word, the Bible, might not give me specific instructions for getting everyone in the house to the right place at the right time, God gives some general principles to follow along the way: be kind to one another, keep your promises, share, be generous, love others as I have loved you. And when I rely on these directions and follow them, we all get where we’re headed in a much better frame of mind.
I might not be able to see the big picture when I’m in the mess of the small details of life, but I can trust God who knows how these things fit together in the big picture of His plan. He’s really the one who is putting the puzzle together.
Carol C. and her husband have been married for nearly 50 years. She is a proud mother and grandmother, as well as a teacher and author. For more on the Study With Friends Bible Studies, click here.
Yes we just need to keep on walking even if it doesn’t make sense! We need to look at the puzzle picture on the cover of the box (Gods Word) to complete our lives puzzles.