“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Puzzle season. Okay, technically where I live, we haven’t even made it into fall yet, but every winter, when the days are short and the nights are long, I look forward to working jigsaw puzzles. In early November the jigsaw puzzles make their appearances. With great confidence and enthusiasm, we clear off a spare table, dump out the pile of pieces, and set about restoring a picture to its original appearance.

That is the vision anyway.

Puzzle Season

One year we added a new one to our collection. A one-thousand-piece picture of the Swiss Alps at sunset. Since only three colors were needed to print it, they could afford to sell it at a discounted rate. A little black along the bottom edge where the landscape was in shadows, shades of orange as the sun bounces off the mountains, and blue sky. At least one half of this puzzle is nothing but amoeba shaped bits of blue cardboard. And this is why my husband no longer has the privilege of picking out which puzzles to buy. But we were able to use the money we saved from getting it at a discount to pay for marriage counseling afterwards.

Now because I’m a problem solver—or maybe because I am impatient and easily frustrated—I often try coaxing a piece of the puzzle into the place I need it to go. But all this does is throw the entire puzzle off. The part made to go there now has to find another place where it wasn’t really meant to be and so on and so forth. 

The Master Puzzle Maker

I believe God appreciates a good puzzle too. He designed each of us—all our curves and edges—to fit exactly where He needs us in His larger story. 

Every person has a specific place they fit. When they aren’t in place, it leaves a hole. When they try to fill a place that isn’t theirs, it throws the picture off. 

The world tries to shove us into places we aren’t intended to be, jamming our hearts into a hole too small, too tight and confining, bending and battering us until it looks like we fit. Or a hole too big for us, leaving too much room to wiggle, too much open space around us eventually wearing us down. 

The Perfect Fit

But when we find the place we were uniquely designed to fit, everything clicks. We cease to struggle against our inner nature trying to fit a part not meant for us to play. A piece of God’s puzzle in the perfect and proper place, filling the role only it can fill in order to make the mosaic of God’s Kingdom the flawless masterpiece He intended.

Sometimes it’s not easy to find the place we are meant to be. I often pick up pieces of the puzzle that are close fits, they look like they might be the one, only to find that isn’t their place after all. Sometimes we need to try different things before we find our perfect part. Sometimes learning where we don’t fit is as important as of discovering where we do. 

Because we are all uniquely shaped by our Creator for an irreplaceable role.