Newly Rooted

My kids love puzzles. Especially my 2 year old. She’s not particularly drawn to the puzzles for her age range. she prefers to reach for the ones that are more meant for her sisters. The ones that are up to 70 pieces.

Sometimes it becomes a sweet bonding moment between her and me. Together, we get to piece it together. I point to where they belong and she tries to put it in place. Sometimes she still puts it in the wrong direction and I have to tell her to keep turning it until it fits.

Before any of this begins, she does the thing she loves most about doing puzzles; she dumps the entire contents onto the floor in a giant pile then spreads them across the floor. Some are upside down and some are right side up. At that moment, she often gets very overwhelmed and begins calling for help…maybe yelling is a better word?

That is when I come in and our wonderful bonding moment begins.

Isn’t this so similar to our relationship with God at times? I am the tiny toddler, so excited to embark on a puzzle I’ve seen others complete before me. I’ve seen what the masterpiece can look like. And so I messily dump the contents of my life onto the floor, determined to piece it all together to create my greatest masterpiece.

But the moment I look around and see every piece strewn across the floor and I can’t even identify where one piece could possibly fit, I become consumed with overwhelm. How did it get like this? It was such a beautiful puzzle when someone else did it? How come I can’t figure this out?

I’m so grateful for Hannah because she is teaching me what real resilience is about. She could walk away upset and give up…and maybe sometimes she does… until I encourage her to come try with me. But most often, she is the one that comes to me. She knows that I have a greater ability than she does and I can help her piece it back together.

Oh how thankful I am that the Lord is there with me. Stooping to my level, turning the pieces over one at a time. Helping me identify what parts must go on first in order to make sense of the rest. Sometimes He lets me try to fit a piece in the wrong place. And when I’m ready to come to Him, He points me in the right direction.

When I try to put the piece where He prompted me to but it just doesn’t fit, He guides me to turn it around until it does fit. He doesn’t force. He waits gently while I fumble around.

Often my patience with the process gets thin. I just want the puzzle put together so I can see the beautiful picture. So does my two year old. But why doesn’t He just do it for me? If He has all wisdom and power He surely could…and I surely want Him to very often. This is where I often fight with Him the most. Just tell me where the piece fits or better yet, put it in there for me!

But He doesn’t for the same reason I don’t finish the puzzle without Hannah. The pure joy and pleasure she and I both feel when she realizes she did it. She created the masterpiece she had worked so hard to create. I could never take that away from her.

God knows all the pieces of the puzzle to our masterpiece are sometimes in shambles on the floor and He also knows what it will look like when complete. He won’t leave us alone to figure out something far beyond our capabilities because He knows we need His help. But He also won’t do it for us because He knows that it’s in the adversity that growth allows us to feel true joy over the masterpiece we create with Him.

Life might be in shambles now, but just wait, the pieces will come together and the time and pain in piecing it all together will be worth it.