Devotionals for the Heart: Puzzles

God Can Make All the Pieces Fit
A devotional by Glynis Becker

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” 

–Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

Over the last year, many of us have taken up new hobbies, or renewed old interests in order to pass the time during quarantine. Some of us have learned to bake bread (I was pleased my own sourdough starter lasted a full six months!), knitted, crocheted, learned to play a musical instrument, started—and probably quit—numerous workout plans, as well as a million other creative things. One of the most popular, it seems, is working jigsaw puzzles. They’ve been sold out at times in stores and online and I read that one puzzle historian compared it to sales during the Great Depression.

I hadn’t done a jigsaw in years, but seeing other people putting together puzzles, spurred me to put on my mask and hit the store. I found a 1000-piece puzzle of a beautiful landscape scene and a puzzle mat and excitedly started working. It didn’t take long to see that I was out of my league! I couldn’t find all the edge pieces. I couldn’t tell the sky from the water and after a few frustrating days, I pulled apart the few pieces I’d put together and threw them back in the box.

Undeterred from my new hobby, I went back to the store for a slightly easier 500-piece puzzle, making sure there were lots of different colors and clear edge pieces. Over the next few weeks I completed that puzzle, as well as one more 500-piece puzzle. I finally felt ready to go back and try that first one again. It was still hard, but I did it and I felt victorious! I’d become a puzzler!

So while I highly recommend jigsaw puzzles if you’re looking for a hobby, this is not an advertisement for this hobby in particular. Because puzzles have given me a lot of quiet time for thinking, meditation, and reflection, I thought I’d pass along a few of the life lessons I’ve learned by spending hours bent over the puzzle table.

These are the lessons I’ve learned:

#1) Trust: I have to trust that the puzzle maker hasn’t left out any pieces and the picture on the box matches the actual puzzle I’m working on. If God has created my life and He knows what it will look like when it’s all over, I must trust Him to have given me everything I need to finish what’s been started. He has never failed before and He won’t start now. (Philippians 1:6)

#2) Patience: A complicated puzzle will probably not be completed quickly. Life can often feel like a jumble of pieces that are taking too long to fit together. God knows what my beautiful masterpiece will look like in the end and He has all the time in the world to create exactly what He wants if I let Him. (Psalm 40:1)

#3) Individuality: Puzzles have unique pieces that only fit together a certain way. God has uniquely suited me to fit a certain time and place and purpose that He laid out for me before I was born. (Ephesians 2:10)

#4) Tenacity: Don’t stop when things get too hard! Although my faith isn’t about me and I can’t do anything to earn God’s love, He wants me to keep showing up to meet Him, keep learning about Him, keep praying even when I don’t feel like it, keep reading the Bible, keep sharing the Good News with the people around me. (Isaiah 40:31)

Bottom Line: Life often gives us pieces that don’t seem to fit, but if we let Him, all together they will create an amazing picture!

Let’s Pray: Father God, thank You so much for the beautiful masterpiece You are creating in my life. I praise You as the Potter, the Artist, and the Musician making something beautiful out of all my broken pieces. Help me continue to come to You, every minute of every day, allowing You to use me for Your glory alone. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen. 

P.S._Listen to this song "Pieces" by Meredith Andrews to discover how God can make all the pieces of your life puzzle fit.

~*~
Author Bio:

Glynis Becker writes devotions and inspirational fiction, hoping someday to have a published novel on her resume. 

She has co-written several screenplays, including the film Sinking Sand, available on DVD and digital streaming.

Glynis, whose childhood was spent all over the country as an Air Force brat, has called South Dakota home for many years, along with her husband and two teenage children.

When she’s not writing or reading, she is watching more television than she should and crocheting.

You can find her at www.glynisbecker.com.

Devotionals for the Heart: Puzzles

Puzzles and Procrastination
A devotional by Glynis Becker

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!” –Philippians 2:6-8 (NIV)

Last week I should have been writing.

I needed to get words down on paper for a project I was working on, but often at times like that I become a master of procrastination. (Please tell me I’m not alone in this!) I ended up doing a whole bunch of other ridiculous things in place of what I should have been doing. Some of these were things that needed to get done — like clearing the stack of papers cluttering a bookshelf and cleaning the shower — but others were absolutely not important at all, including “fixing” the Rubik’s cube that’s been sitting in my home, messed up for at least six months.

I risk aging myself with this next statement: this is an original Rubik’s cube I’ve had since I was a teenager. I’ll also risk letting you in on another secret: I’ve never solved it without help.

My bachelor’s degree is in mechanical engineering. I am by nature a problem solver. I love puzzles of all kinds. Jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, logic puzzles. But I only love them if I know I can solve them. I like a challenge, but I don’t like to be frustrated. If I think there is no way I can solve a puzzle, then I’m out.

The exception to this for me is the Rubik’s cube. I’m absolutely comfortable knowing that I need help to fix it. I’m okay with pulling out a book or opening up a website to have someone show me the steps to get that cube back to its previously perfect state. I also know that there are people out there solving the thing in way less than a minute and I can’t do it in days. I’m okay with that.

Since I’ve been trying to fix it on my own since the mid-80s, I’m thinking at this point, it’s probably not going to happen. So, it has become a lesson in humility for me.

What an important lesson to learn in life. Humility in our day-to-day interaction with people makes us so much more compassionate with them and keeps us open-minded. We can’t learn anything new or truly listen to another person if we are so wrapped in our own pride that we think we already know it all.

Humility is a big part of our faith as well. If we realize what our place is in the world and in God’s story, we better position ourselves to be used by God to bring the kingdom, unhindered by the need to take credit for the good that happens. We can point to Jesus and honestly say, “You don’t need me. You need Him!”

Jesus is the ultimate example of humility. He is God in all power and strength and glory. Yet He became a baby with all an infant’s frailties and dependencies. Jesus needed someone to feed Him and teach Him to walk. But His humility resulted in the ultimate sacrifice at the cross that led to salvation for all of us.

“But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” – Hebrews 2:9 (NIV)

If Jesus can humble Himself like that, then each day I need to make sure I am humbling myself in a similar way. I think I’ll put that Rubik’s cube somewhere so I can see it often. Whether it’s messed up or perfect, it’s a reminder to me that only in following the direction of Christ, can my life be best used for Him.

Let’s Pray: Father God, give me direction today. Show me the steps to take, even if it’s just one, to follow You more closely in humility, grace, and love. Thank you for your gift of Jesus and the example of humility. I love you. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

~*~
Author Bio:

Glynis Becker writes devotions and inspirational fiction, hoping someday to have a published novel on her resume.

She has co-written several screenplays, including the film Sinking Sand, available on DVD and digital streaming.

Glynis, whose childhood was spent all over the country as an Air Force brat, has called South Dakota home for many years, along with her husband and two teenage children.

When she’s not writing or reading, she is watching more television than she should and crocheting. You can find her at www.glynisbecker.com.