So with the latest "I'm bored " her mom found a jigsaw puzzle in a cabinet where we are staying and told her what fun it was to put together to see the picture come to life. It was a picture of too many cats sitting on shelves too close together for my liking but we pressed on. The box said 300 pieces. Good not too few and not too many. So we started by telling her the way to go about this new challenge. We dumped the box and began turning over all the pieces. That was "way boring". Now we were looking for the pieces with a straight edge so we could make the border. Her interest sparked but quickly faded as there were so many straight edges that didn't connect immediately. But her mom and I persevered. We got the border finished that evening. {did I mention the word addiction?]
The next morning we went to work on the puzzle and her mom had small parts connected but not in the right places yet just small scenes around the puzzle. That intrigued the 8 year old. She could work on a small scene and work she did. Every piece was a victory and we celebrated each one!
We had the puzzle almost together but there seemed to be so few pieces left and too many large gaps. My daughter stated, "I think there are pieces missing." We continued to press on. We finished the puzzle but there were only 299 pieces so we had a gap in our finished product. We were elated that we were finished but disappointed that there was a missing piece.
We all went to bed. The next morning at breakfast my husband, [who hung in the background watching the whole thing] informed us that he had found the missing piece. What? Where? Really? So as a group we hurried into the living room to inspect his claim. We looked where the missing piece had been and low and behold it was there. No, wait something was not right. My husband had meticulously cut out a piece of paper to fit the hole but was limited to the colors he could color it {only a red or black pen]. He did a really good job but it wasn't quit right. We all had a good laugh and left the puzzle there for a few days and a little girl wasn't as bored as she had been.
Sometimes life feels like that 300 piece puzzle with only 299 pieces. We are unable to find the piece [peace] that we search for. We could be looking in the wrong places. Perhaps we search for peace in our spouse, or the shopping spree that we are sure is the missing peace. But the word of God states
Isaiah 26:3You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Don't try to fix things on your own [cut out your own peace] but see the Prince of Peace and He will provide it for you and it will be the real thing not something almost there.
