The picture is not completed, and the story is not over

Over the years, our family has enjoyed puzzles and board games over the holidays.  Some endeavors in the past continued for days and even weeks at times, a few minutes and a strategic move on the Risk board, a puzzle piece transplanted from one side to another as someone rushed out the door, or the discovery of that elusive piece fallen on the rug below the high chair. These joustings are eventually abandoned on the dining room table, and reluctantly shelved in the back closet sometime in mid-January. 

One of our daughters brought a new puzzle with her when she came home for Christmas this year.  A pile of literally a thousand indecipherable pieces of tiny birds waited on the dining room table like a forgotten guest. 

We barely even knew where to start.

The pieces were shaped mostly alike, with tiny beaks and teeny bird feet, snatches of color on wings and tails, and an occasional dark eye looking for its little bird face.

The puzzle is designed to ultimately form a picture when it is all put together, but the completion of puzzles and the resolution of problems are not confined to a calendar year, nor to a list of goals.  Maybe not this year is a mark of growth, not a dead end.

When it comes down to it, even the unexpected pieces, the mysterious, difficult, joyous and incomprehensible —I had a few of those this year — even in what appears to be missing or does not seem to fit, all is being redeemed.  It just may not be visible to me yet.

Not time to give up, but trust the Almighty a little more, follow a little closer, and realize how myopic I am.

Do I view the year in so many tiny unconnected pieces?

The picture is not completed, and the story is not over yet.

“Trust Me in this.” Nothing random at all, not even one little piece.  Faith is not wishful thinking that somehow it will work out, nor sorting through to find some kind of meaning in it, nor pasting a picture on the box of what I want it to look like in the end.  Faith is knowing there is a design, even in the mess, every piece is strategically positioned, every shadow faithful, everything impossible is still a carefully crafted detail.

God surprises us sometimes when a small corner unexpectedly comes together, or a couple of odd unrelated shapes fit snugly, and give a glimpse of what is and what might be. The Lord actually knows what He is doing, even if I do not, maybe especially when I do not.

There is a sacred glory after all, His ongoing grace and infinite love.

He is before all things,

and in Him,

all things hold together.

                  Colossians 1. 17

Imagine that in 2019.

Happy New Year, my friend!