Puzzle Pieces

In an effort to switch things up one night last week, the Hubs and I decided to put a puzzle together, as our normal nightly routine consists of eating dinner, doing schoolwork, and then watching either an episode of the Office or a movie. Well, the puzzle was a fantastic choice to change things up. It was a 750 piece scene of a dockside marina in Amsterdam. A total of seven colorful buildings decorates the picture, in addition to a cafe or two, restaurants, and dozens of people. Needless to say, it took us a while to finish it, and the end product is one that is now beautifully displayed in our home.

While we were picking out the corners and end pieces, it was pretty overwhelming. I mean, that's 750 pieces to go through! The entire top of this puzzle is a blue sky, so that is a lot of thinking we had the right piece, only to find out it wasn't. Hours upon hours of working on that blue sky turned into days. Literally. But, eventually, it was starting to come together! As we took frequent breaks, I would walk by the table and just stand and look at the unfinished picture.

It was beautiful, even unfinished. A work in progress.

I slowly started to piece ideas together, as we were piecing the puzzle together. This puzzle is no different than life. Truly. While we are all unfinished works in progress, we still are beautiful. Its not the finished puzzle that makes it beautiful, it was the work that went into it!

I mean, think about it. When you have put a puzzle together, what happens when you are all done? It either sits there as decoration, is framed and put on a wall (as decoration), or it gets taken apart and put back in the box, just to be stored away and never looked at again.

Every day of our life is a process of finding the right puzzle piece that fits, and placing it where it goes. Sometimes we find a piece that seems to be the perfect fit, just to find out that its not. We then have to remove it and try again. Sometimes we find an individual piece that is beautiful on its own, yet we cannot find where it goes. And sometimes, we are able to build an entire section of our life in no time at all, only to just let it sit there and try to figure out how it fits in the big picture.

No one is a finished puzzle. We are all works in progress, and honestly, who wants to be a finished product, only to sit as decoration or thrown back into a box - never to be touched again?

Find a piece today, and figure out where it goes. Or, put a small inner scene together and take an effort each day to see how it fits into the big picture.

Just remember: All the pieces you need are within your reach, its your job to put them together.

Good luck, and HAVE FUN!!!