puzzle pieces on a table

A Puzzle with Missing Pieces

The Golden Nugget: Sometimes life feels like a puzzle with missing pieces, but it’s good to know there’s someone bigger than us.

Daily Verse: “Hear me, my God, as I voice my complaint; protect my life from the threat of the enemy.” —Psalm 64:1

Daily Message: 
Perhaps you had the childhood experience of putting a puzzle together with an older sibling or a parent. They may have helped you by pointing, hinting, or telling you where to place a piece. As you grew up, you progressed from a ten-piece puzzle to one with one thousand pieces. Now you can complete a three-thousand-piece puzzle. Unless . . . unless you think a piece is missing.  

Why can’t you find that one piece to finish out this section? Where is it? you wonder. But you don’t stop! Even though you’re certain that piece is gone, you continue to put the puzzle together. Why do you still work on a puzzle if you are missing part of it?

Life is like that. It might feel like it’s coming together nicely. But then something happens and suddenly you feel an empty space, a void. You think to yourself that life is incomplete. But just like your older sibling or parent when you were young, God is there to guide you. He knows what to do about the missing piece. God already knows what your life puzzle looks like and he will help you piece it together.

Consider This:

  • Why would God think your life is still worth living even if it doesn’t look like the picture on the box?
  • Why does God want to help you with your life puzzle?

Take Action:
With a friend, put together a very simple puzzle. Taking turns, have one of you wear a blindfold. The other, speaking verbal instructions only (no assistance by hand or looking at the picture on the box), will tell the blindfolded friend how to put the puzzle together. What is the experience like? What worked and what didn’t? Did you learn anything about a better way to help someone?