Finishing the Puzzle

What is it that causes fear?  Why do I struggle with the worry or anxiety that sometimes seems to plague me?  I think there is always something that can cause me fear.  When I was little it was the dark - I didn't really like the dark. I didn't like open closet doors that appeared dark and scary.  As I've grown up I actually enjoy the dark to a degree and especially like it to be very dark when I sleep.  I still am not as comfortable with open closet doors and I get regularly teased about that but now it's much more than the dark that causes me to fear.

It's the unknown.  Not knowing something causes great fear.  When I don't know what the next step should be or where my people will end up or where the payment for the next bill or what might show up on the next physical that I truly get afraid.  I'm sure it goes back to being in control. 

I love puzzles.  I love seeing all the pieces going into place and building something cool or beautiful.  Life is a lot like puzzles.  Each choice, each decision, each part of our lives builds a picture.  The difference between putting a puzzle together and letting our lives build one is we don't have a picture to go by on the lid.  It's that picture on the lid that drives us to complete the puzzle.  We know when we are finished we will see it all together.  Life doesn't work that way.  We don't have any clue what the finished picture will be.  We don't know how that bump in the road or crooked piece fits into the picture of our life.  And that is where the fear comes in.  Can we make the pieces fit so that the picture is beautiful or will it be a jumbled up mess of pieces that never comes together? 

That's where faith comes in. Do we trust God with all the pieces of our puzzle?  Because you know what - He is looking at the lid with the picture on it.  He knows.  He can see every piece fitting together until we are fulfilled with Him in eternity as a the perfect design He intended us to be.  He holds the box and all the pieces and with every choice we make He picks up the piece and gently puts it where it belongs slowly building the beauty that He sees in us.  When we let Him.  That's the key - trusting and obeying and letting Him place each piece where it fits the best. 

So let go of the unknown and the crazy mixed up pieces of your life and let your God who has the box lid in hand fit you together the way that finishes the puzzle in beauty. 

Matthew 10:26 (NIV)  “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known."