I love jigsaw puzzles.

I think it’s my compulsive need to have things organized and in their place.

Maybe it’s the thrill of having a picture come to life at my fingertips.

As I was working on a puzzle the other night I got to thinking. (I know that’s scary – but stay with me here!)

Life is very much like a puzzle. Sometimes the pieces just fall together, and a beautiful picture emerges.

But other times you struggle with a section. Sometimes there are no clues to help you, there is nothing but blue sky or a field of identical flowers where every piece looks the same.

You end up trying out each piece one by one in every direction to find a match. It’s time-consuming and often frustrating.

Ahh, yes. Such is life.

But in life, as in puzzles, it always helps to look at the final picture. For a puzzle, I study the box to see where the pieces go in relation to each other. In life, I study God’s word. It’s my blue print, my “directions”, my road map.

Whenever I start a puzzle, I always find the outside pieces and put them together first, then the rest of the puzzle fits inside.

So it is with life. My relationship with God is the frame around which my life happens.

Once I have the outside pieces or the frame in place, and I see the “big” picture of what He wants my life to be, then all those frustrating section when nothing seems to work don’t seem quite as daunting.

Yes, life can sometimes be a puzzle, but with God, even the hard spots eventually make sense!