I have always been a fan of puzzles. There is great satisfaction in taking all the little bits and pieces, putting each in their rightful place, and eventually having a complete picture assembled in front of me. There was a time when we had big family Thanksgiving gatherings, with aunts, uncles, and cousins everywhere. We always had a big puzzle in one room, and everyone would filter in and out through the course of the day, each putting a few pieces in place with every pass through the room.

I remember one year, one of my cousins had snagged one piece and stuck it in his pocket, holding on to it until it was the last piece left. He wanted to be able to put the final piece into the puzzle (we can be a rather competitive bunch), and by snagging just one piece, he secured his victory over the final picture! Needless to say, we all gave him a hard time, but couldn’t help laughing because we knew we would have done the same if we’d thought of it ourselves!

For anyone who has put a puzzle together, I’m sure you had the box propped up close by in order to refer back to the intended picture for help in sorting the various pieces and getting a general idea what pieces you wanted to try and pull out of the pile. Most of us tend to pull out all of the edge pieces first, because we want to define our parameters, and those are usually the easiest pieces to recognize. Once the border is all put together, it gives a more definitive starting place for the “guts” of the puzzle. If only life were that easy to assemble!

We don’t have an intended picture to refer to when trying to put the pieces of our lives together, but thankfully, we were given all of the border pieces so we know our parameters and have a good jumping off point for assembling the “guts” of life. When we are faced with a new decision, or piece of the puzzle of life, we are able to hold it up against the word of God to determine if it’s a piece that belongs in our puzzle, and then turn to God Himself for confirmation on whether or not that piece is intended to fit into our life.

Yes, we can choose to try and force pieces into place of our own volition, and we can try to make judgments on the pieces other people are putting into their own puzzles, but that doesn’t mean we are going to be right about any of it. Sure, we can luck out here and there and end up putting the right piece into place without checking it against God’s design, but that is likely to be the exception and not the rule. Often, we are given pieces that are difficult to incorporate, because they don’t look the way we think they should, so it takes us longer to accept that they belong in our picture. Sometimes the enemy gives us pieces and convinces us we need to force them into place, and when we do his bidding, we feel troubled and off kilter. The picture of our lives feels wrong because we know we have a piece that doesn’t belong, or we can sense that an important piece is missing.

Frequently, other people are the most important pieces the Father puts into the design of our lives. When He brings people to your life, they are there to serve a purpose. Even when they pass away from our lives, their corner of our puzzle remains intact because of the imprint they’ve left behind. Other times, Satan does whatever he can to pull the most vital pieces from us, leaving a void that cannot be filled with another piece. This is what is so important about forgiveness in relationships. People we love are going to make mistakes and even do things that cause us pain. But when we choose to hold on to our anger and remain unforgiving, we are allowing the adversary to keep some of our most needed puzzle pieces out of the picture. We are giving him control over our design, instead of trusting that God’s way is the only way to truly end up with the picture He has created for our lives.

“In Him also we have received an inheritance [a destiny–we were claimed by God as His own], having been predestined (chosen, appointed beforehand) according to the purpose of Him who works everything in agreement with the counsel and design of His will.” Ephesians 1:11 AMP