Misty Fitch | Fearfully Made

It may sound strange, but I’ve been thinking about puzzles a lot lately.  I used to love putting puzzles together because, even though I became frustrated sometimes, I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment once it was completed.

Some puzzles are incredibly easy while others can really challenge a person.  I enjoy the challenging ones with great detail capturing something stunning once the puzzle is perfectly pieced together.

Have you ever looked at two pieces and just knew without a doubt they were supposed to connect?  Everything about them just look right, and they interlock with ease.   I get excited when I can pick two pieces out of the pile and just know they were created to connect.  I guess I’m like a kid in that sense.

Appearances Aren’t Everything

The funny thing about puzzles is often you can find pieces that look incredibly similar.  Every once-in-a-while I pick up what appears to be two perfectly matched pieces, and I lay them side-by-side to interlock as they were created to do, but they don’t quite fit together as easily as the others.  I look at the picture on the box and see that the two pieces seem to match up.  I look at the shape of the pieces, and they appear to be a perfect fit, so why do I have trouble getting them to snap together easily like all the others?  Sometimes I even question if maybe something messed up in the cutting process, and I manipulate them until they finally snap into place.

The closer I get to the finished product, the more I notice the puzzle isn’t flat like it should be.  In the middle of the picture right where those two “perfect” pieces are, the picture arches, and nothing I do can make it stay flat.  Then, I get to then end, and I have one piece left.  It’s obvious this one doesn’t fit in the only available space.

What I quickly realize is that even though those two other pieces appear to be perfect for one another, they weren’t created to be pieced together.  I was forcing them to match up because everything looked perfect, but nothing I could do made them work.  Even when I step back, the picture looks right, but looking from an angle, I see something just isn’t working.  It’s not until I see the final piece that doesn’t fit into the last place that I notice I originally chose the wrong one.  I got overly anxious and saw something that appeared perfect in every way, so I connected the two.  I didn’t realize the creator of the puzzle made a similar looking piece that actually fits perfectly without a forced connection.

What a difference it makes to interlock the correct pieces together!  When that happens, the entire puzzle falls into place just as it was intended to.

Don’t Rush

You and I were created to have relationships.  Just like those puzzle pieces, there was someone specifically designed for you.  Too many times we find ourselves rushing to find “the one,” so we sometimes force a connection that appears to be right in most ways even though the connection is off a little.

Similar to the puzzle, that relationship might be sufficient for a while, but the more pieces you add into your life, the more you’ll see you two weren’t designed for one another.  It doesn’t mean something’s wrong with you, and it doesn’t mean something’s wrong with the other person.  It simply means you got overly excited when you saw someone who appeared to be exactly what you were looking for, so you grabbed onto him and forced a relationship when the one God perfectly designed for you just hadn’t made his way into your life yet.

When you jump into a relationship that wasn’t intended for you, you’ll see that the more pieces you both add to your lives, the more unbalanced the picture becomes.

I know it’s easy to grab the first guy who appears to be exactly what you’re looking for.  It’s hard to pass up someone who seems perfect in every way.  The thing is, he is perfect, but it might be that he’s perfect for someone else, and you’re forcing a relationship that wasn’t God-breathed.  Be patient and wait until that guy comes along that God intended for you.   

Sometimes the perfect puzzle piece jumps right out at you early on, but sometimes it takes a little longer and may even be the final piece that completes the picture.  Either way, the connection between the two is perfect, and if you patiently wait for the right piece, you’ll be able to step back and see a beautiful and perfectly balanced picture.