Puzzle Pieces

“I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11

Have you ever done a jigsaw puzzle? Most of the pieces are just bits of color. Is that blue piece a bit of sky or water? Is the green piece part of the grass or a leaf? The red looks like part of the barn, or maybe it’s part of the wagon. You may not know what each piece is, but when you put all the pieces together, they form a picture.

Your life may seem like that puzzle to you. One day the girl who rides the bus with you acts like she’s your friend, but the next day she makes fun of you. You practice for weeks for a lead role in the musical, but you are offered only a part in the chorus. You pray for your grandmother who is very sick, but she dies anyway. Your best friend moves away because of her dad’s job, and you don’t think you’ll find another friend like her. Sometimes life doesn’t make sense. That’s because each of those events is just one puzzle piece, not the whole picture.

Not seeing the whole picture can make the individual events of your life seem confusing. Good things happen. Bad things happen. Some days you just don’t know what to expect. That’s because you’re only seeing that small piece of your life. Who knows where today’s events may lead down the road?

God does! He sees the whole picture at once. He created a special plan just for you. And he uses things that don’t always make sense to you, both good and bad, to work out his plan. He knows what he wants you to accomplish for him, and he’s given you everything you need to succeed. So when life doesn’t make sense to you, trust that the things happening today—the individual puzzle pieces—are part of the bigger picture: God’s special plan for you.

Put a jigsaw puzzle together with a friend or family member. (If you don’t have a puzzle, you can usually buy one at a dollar store or even make one by cutting a magazine picture into pieces.) Talk about how God’s plan is like that puzzle.