I caved. Even though I know I’m not supposed to…I gave in to peer pressure. SO many people were posting pictures on Facebook that they were doing it…and I just finally caved.
Yes, just like so many, I started a puzzle during this time of quarantine. To be honest…I’m not a puzzle person. It’s just too much monotony for me. All the pieces look pretty much the same in my mind and to sit and try to find the exact piece to go into the exact place…is just too much stress. Everyone else makes it seem so simple…they are posting one trillion-piece puzzle after another and they seem so satisfied and fulfilled in their accomplishment…and instead I just end up with a headache.
Maybe I would have felt better about myself if I would have started with a puzzle with only 25 pieces. You know…one that was left over from when my kids were young. At least I could have finished it rather quickly and I could have posted it for everyone to admire. But then again…a puzzle of Big Bird isn’t a hot commodity right now.
But no…I started with a puzzle with 550 pieces and to have that many little pieces of “cardboard” staring at me is just overwhelming. Even though the box lid shows me what the finished product is supposed to look like, for some reason, I tend to look at all the individual 550 pieces. And as strange as it may sound, it’s easy for me to then become rattled and stressed.
I don’t know about you…but life during this time of quarantine can, at times, feel pretty much the same way. Yes, we know Who is in control. Yes, we know Who holds us in His hands. Yes, we know that He wins in the end and what the final “picture” will be when we are blessed to spend eternity with Him. But even though we know all that…we tend to look at all the crazy, individual puzzles pieces of life that don’t seem to fit in anywhere and as a result…it is so easy to become rattled and stressed.
Over Easter, we watched the classic movie, The Ten Commandments. I’ve seen this movie more than once and have read the account in the Bible numerous times. But something hit me this time that I’m not sure I have ever considered. In the amazing scene where God parts the Red Sea and the Israelites walk on dry ground to get to the other side…I think I have always focused on the incredible, miraculous fact that He parted the raging waters. But I never thought about the participants. What would they have been thinking as they walked across?
I know what I would have been thinking. Instead of being in awe of what God was doing for me…I’m guessing I would have spent my time wondering if and when the waters would come rushing over me. I have a feeling I would have walked across with my neck cocked to either the right or left…watching every droplet of those waters, wondering if they would stay back. Instead of keeping my eyes on where I was going and the glorious “picture” of being on the other side on dry ground…there’s a good chance I would have crossed in overwhelming fear of the water swirling around me and would have surely been rattled and stressed. I’m afraid I would have missed the magnificence of the miracle, because my focus would have been on the spraying droplets around me.
Ahhhhh…once again…it all comes down to where my focus lies. When I’m doing the puzzle, if I keep my focus on what the finished picture looks like…it’s easier to take one piece at a time and find its place. During this time of quarantine, if I keep my focus on the One who already knows what the finished portrait of my life will be, it’s easier to take each individual puzzle piece of life more in stride…knowing it’s all part of His plan. There really is no reason for me to go through life so “puzzled”. One day at a time…one piece at a time…always being in awe of the miracles on the journey.
By the way, I’ve decided I’m going to keep working on my puzzle…one stinkin’ piece at a time. But if I don’t have it done by the time the quarantine is over…I think I might just put it away and go for Big Bird. Then I can boast that I completed a puzzle during my time at home…and I’ll just pray no one asks me how many pieces it was
“So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather,
we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.
For the things we see now will soon be gone,
but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
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