The Puzzle I Call Life

Ever since I was a little girl I have always loved doing puzzles.  I love examining each piece with its unique shape and design.  I love the sense of satisfaction I feel when I find a piece that fits perfectly with another to compliment the beauty of each other's detail.  I always start with the edge pieces to lay the framework for what will soon be a work of art.  Then I work inwardly, focusing on the most intricate and difficult sections first.  When those are finished I can focus on the less difficult but equally beautiful sections of the masterpiece.  Occasionally, throughout the course of work, I come across a particularly stubborn piece.  One that does not seem to fit anywhere.  But it has to, I know it has to so I persevere.  I compare it to the picture of what it is supposed to look like and sometimes it helps right away and sometimes it doesn't seem to.  Sometimes I will take a break to find the easier pieces but I always come back to the stubborn ones because they must have a place.   Ignoring them would make for an incomplete work, which is not an option.  Eventually, when I inevitably find where they belong I realize that the piece was not stubborn but rather I was.  I couldn't see what is so clear now, because I was either focusing on the wrong thing or not focusing at all.  But regardless, that picture remains at my side just in case I need its help.

Currently I am working on a 3000-piece puzzle and it is by far the most difficult one I've attempted yet. Every time I sit down to work on it I can't help but to think about how these puzzles of mine seem to parallel my life.  Just like the puzzle I, as we all have, started at the beginning to lay the framework.  My edge pieces are made from the lessons I learned as a child both from experiences and from parents and mentors.  As I grew older I began to work inwardly on some of the more intricate details of my heart and mind.  I piece my thoughts and experiences together to form my beautiful feelings and beliefs.  With more experience and time my puzzle grows and already I can see the potential masterpiece it can one day be.  I have come across many pieces that don't seem to fit and questions that don't seem to have an answer.  But I know that they must because my guide would not have brought them to me if they didn't.  I turn to my guide often  for help and sometimes I hear His answers right away and other times I do not.  I often turn to the smaller issues of life as a break from the larger ones but I always find my way back to the pieces that don't seem to fit.  My guide, my example, always helps me fit the pieces together in the end and I always realize that it was my own inability or lack of willingness to see that ever held me back in the first place.

As I continue to work on my masterpiece I will always keep my guide at my side.  He has never failed me before and I know that He will always be there to help me piece together this puzzle I call my life.