JIGSAW PUZZLE

My wife and I love jigsaw puzzles.  It's one of those activities that challenge the brain while at the same time providing an opportunity to talk, laugh, and share a sense of accomplishment when we finish.  It’s usually an activity that we save for winter weather.  There’s just something cozy and comforting about sitting down with a hot mug of cocoa topped with marshmallows and a snack, and working out the puzzle before you.

 

We have our own strategy when we solve jigsaw puzzles.  First we empty all of the pieces on the table and turn them all over right-side up.  Then we start searching for the straight-edged pieces that make up the outside border of the puzzle.  Once the border is complete, we start sorting out pieces based on similar colors, patterns, or hues; or if they appear to belong together to form some outstanding feature in the picture - a person, farmhouse, or a bridge for instance.  We both work on separate sections initially (she accuses me of taking the easy parts), but then work together toward the end to finish the sky, or sea, or some other featureless expanse. 

 

Sometimes a piece of the puzzle will be particularly elusive.  We will search and search, and just not see it.  Even though it is the only piece missing from an otherwise completed section, and we can see its exact shape, and apparent color, yet, we will not see it.  After awhile, we'll start blaming the manufacturer for not including all of the pieces, or we'll blame each other for losing a piece under the table (well, ok, sometimes we do); but often, the piece will just show up when we're looking for something else. 

 

Slowly, section by section, a beautiful picture takes shape; and, surprisingly, all the pieces are there after all, and each has its place in the whole.

 

The Word of God is much like a jigsaw puzzle.  We are so anxious to understand everything there is to know about the Bible, but it is like a complex puzzle that needs to be put together piece by piece.  There are those things that we learn early on that form a "border" for our understanding: faith, redemption, original sin, Christ's sacrifice.  Even these, however, become clearer as we find new pieces of truth that fit into the border.  The one thing that we will find is true about the Bible, as well as jigsaw puzzles, is that every new piece will fit together with what God has already shown us.  Every fresh revelation will only clarify what the Lord has already revealed.  Bit by bit, the picture will take shape.  We will discover that from Genesis to Revelation, God has always had a plan, and He has never deviated from that plan from the beginning of time.  Everything that He has done from the beginning leads up to one clear and cohesive picture in the end.

 

We wonder why we can't understand certain things that we read, or why a passage seems to contradict another passage that we have read.  The reason is that we do not have enough of the picture revealed yet to form a proper frame of reference.  There are truths in the Bible that can only be understood in relation to still other truths.  Until we are in a position spiritually to receive such truths, we may remain blind to something that may seem elementary to an older, more mature Christian.  Jesus said to the twelve, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." (John 16:12).  As much as we think we are very mature, and able to understand anything that God would tell us, He knows how easily we would be offended at the truth if our hearts weren't first prepared to receive it.  "He came to His own, and His own received Him not."

 

One thing I know is true: the Word of God cannot be absorbed by the natural man.  One must first be born again and receive the Holy Spirit of truth before he can begin to understand the truth.  "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1Corinthians 2:14). The Spirit of truth teaches us God's plan little by little.  Every new truth that He reveals to us fits neatly with all the other pieces that He has taught us.  Slowly, the picture begins to take shape.  We must have patience, however.  Some truths take years to grasp.  It all depends on how yielded we are to God, and how ready we are to believe what He tells us is fact.  We must be willing to see with the eyes of the Spirit and trust with the heart of a child.  

 

Sometimes, that nugget of truth that would complete our understanding of a particular subject will elude us for a long time only to be revealed when we are thinking of something else altogether.  We absorb truth more by the spirit of revelation than we do by our intellect.  We can be confident, though, that God will provide us with the answers that we need when we need them, but not necessarily with the answers that we think we have to have.  In this life, we often have questions that don't seem to have answers.  Like that missing puzzle piece, everything seems clear except for that hole in the picture.  Be assured that there is a piece that just fits in that place; and in time God will provide it.  In the mean time, let's rejoice in all the things that God has shown us, trusting in the One Who holds all truth.

 

"Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." (Isaiah 28:9, 10).