Putting the pieces together

Hindsight. 20/20. Every. single. time. It might not be the outcome we had envisioned. But, nonetheless, when everything comes full circle, the events that led up to the conclusion finally make sense.

Foresight. Nonexistent. For good reason. Because if foresight existed, faith would not. And without the need for faith, there would be no room for God. And that’s just not a possibility.

Journeying through life is much like putting together a puzzle. As we walk our path, we collect pieces. Memories. Friendships. Careers. Growing families. Pieces that we add to our puzzle. Trying to find the “right” fit. Sometimes, try as we might, we just can’t seem to locate the perfect fit. A friendship may fade. A career may no longer seem fulfilling. A once-loving marriage may even come to an end.

And if you’ve ever worked a puzzle, you know that when a piece doesn’t fit, it just doesn’t fit. You can’t alter it. You can’t force it. You can set it to the side and see if you can figure it out another time, but sooner than later, you will learn whether or not it’s meant to be. And if it doesn’t fall into place? Well, those are the moments that could very-well bring some serious heartache into our lives. Or, perhaps, a blessing in disguise.

Hindsight.

You see, it’s not our responsibility to put the puzzle together. Our task is simply to collect the pieces. To play around with them. To shuffle them from here-to-there. Our job is to experience life. To its fullest degree. To make bold moves. Out of our comfort zones. To try and see where they take us. And to let God take over the rest.

To then trust. To let our faith shine. Fully and completely. To understand that if a piece doesn’t quite fall into place; if it’s just not fitting into our life, no matter how hard we’ve tried (or how much we wish it would), that He’s got our best interest at heart….even if we can’t comprehend it at the time.

Think about it…if we reached a certain age in life…an age of adult-like comprehension…and our entire life’s puzzle was laid out before us, piece-by-piece…how then would we choose to live?

~We know there would be fulfillment.

~We know there would be heartache.

~We know there would be disappointment.

~We know there would be blessings.

~We know there would be miracles.

But, how. would. we. decide. to. live. our. life.? It wouldn’t be the same. We wouldn’t be able to live the way God had intended for us to live. We couldn’t experience the great adventure of the unknown or surprise, just around the corner. Our faith would begin to fade…

Hindsight. 20/20. Every. single. time. And one day, we will have our chance. Our very own opportunity. To sit down with our creator and place together the very last piece. The final fragment of our puzzle. And, wow, how open our eyes will be. How fully and completely our life will finally make sense. Every smile. Every tear. Every heartache. Every mistake. Every good deed. Every lesson learned. Every moment we cried out, “Why?!” The w.h.o.l.e. picture will finally come together.

But until that time, as we spend our moments…days…years…collecting our pieces, we must always remember to keep our faith. To know that in any-and-every situation we face…no matter how deeply into despair we may fall…how much we might desire an instantaneous explanation…how eager we are to learn an outcome…that patience is a virtue.

And that God has big plans for each of us. Far greater than we could ever imagine. But most importantly of all, that He, and only He, holds the very last piece.