Finding More than the Corners

So today I was thinking about how my life is like a puzzle, the jigsaw kind. I've heard that life is like a box of chocolates (thanks Forrest) but somehow chocolate just seems too good to describe the last 18 months, so I'm going with cardboard instead.  Back in September of '09 I had all my pieces nicely contained within my box with the pretty picture on the cover, and I enjoyed taking them out and figuring out where they would go. The  landscape was truly beautiful. However, life sneaked up on me and threw that box in the air, and the shower of pieces rained down.

Have you ever lost a puzzle piece?  I have. It drives me crazy to do a puzzle and find a piece is missing. I'll go on a manhunt for that piece so I don't have to see that little hole in the picture staring back at me. I like to finish what I start. Oh, but what a mess if the whole box goes flying through the air. How many puzzle pieces make up a life? That's bigger than a 1000 piece puzzle, believe me. Picture pieces everywhere, as far as the eye can see.

After Bill died I was too tired and distraught to even care about picking up the pieces. Then somewhere along the line I began searching for the corners. After all, Jesus is the cornerstone, so the corners are the important  ones, the foundational beginnings - Seeing and talking to friends and family, staying close to God and going back to church, sleeping and eating, generally functioning with what needs to be done. Put a big old check mark next to these. Most days I've got my corners.

So now I've been looking around trying to figure out how to gather all these other pieces. Problem is, a lot of them don't fit anymore. They're a little mangled and discolored, looks like they've been through a blender, and I'm here to say that they have. However, there's something else too - The picture on the box has changed. The Lord is telling me there's a brand new puzzle. I don't need those old pieces anymore. I can keep the memory of that landscape but it will never be whole in this life again.

So, it turns out I've been trying to fix what cannot be fixed, to finish what is already finished. I can keep the pieces that have meaning and sweep the rest from the recesses of my mind because, as it turns out, some puzzles of life are just meant to have holes, and only Jesus can fill those. So it looks like at this point I'll have to send that box to Him, as only the Master can make it and me complete.