There are so many things that I love doing with my kids, but I have to be honest…. sometimes playing pretend makes me want to poke my eyeballs out. I know… this sometimes makes me feel like a total loser mom, but even when I was little, pretending that Barbie and Skipper were having a conversation in the Barbie house was painful! I would have rather done her hair and rearranged the pretend shoebox of a room she had. (Not to mention, I only had Day and Night barbie which was already an adult with a briefcase. So I was entirely set up for playroom failure.) To get out of playing pretend (which of course I still do friends… lots ) I think of games, activities, crafts, and puzzles for my little people. Puzzles might be my favorite.
We have several puzzles. Some of them have been put together so many times that somehow they are now missing a piece. A puzzle missing a piece is so sad to me! The potential of being whole, together, a beautiful image but never quite coming together because of that one missing part. We try hard to fit in our missing pieces, don’t we? To try to find the perfect thing to make us whole. I have definitely had my losing attempts over the years. The perfect job – let’s try to shove it in that void… nope, doesn’t work. Getting married – void was still there. Becoming a new mom – still missing something.
The obvious thing about a puzzle and its missing piece is that you can’t just throw anything in there to make it complete. This simple concept so directly applies to us as people doesn’t it? Knowing it would’ve saved me and many others (and maybe you too) years of empty living.
Pascal said it best, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man and woman which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator made known through Jesus Christ.” When I first read that quote years ago, it clicked for me…. Jesus, and only Jesus was the only thing that could satisfy this emptiness. He was the missing piece in my life. Let’s come back to that….
My husband loves the movie Jerry McGuire. It might be my least favorite. Remember the line at the end where Tom Cruise is a mess of emotions and says wholeheartedly in the best acting possible… “You complete me.” It has gripped women for years. Ladies… Do not fall for that! Not in your own heart. Not in a way that you can complete someone else’s life… you will never be anyone else’s last missing piece. Our hearts, our lives, were meant for only one thing to make it feel whole – Jesus. We were created by him and for him (Colossians 1:17) and living with him is the only thing that will genuinely ever fulfill that need to be complete.
Jesus tells us this in the book of John, “I have given them the glory you gave me—the glorious unity of being one, as we are— I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.” (17:22-23)
Perfected into One. Complete.
Puzzles go together, and they fall apart again. Just like us. Just like me. Some days I have them all together, and the next day they are all messed up again. One thing, though, that I cannot forget is that my life, the picture of who I am and was created to be will never be complete unless I put Jesus right there in the middle for all of my other messy pieces to build off and be connected to. The perfect starting place for every rebuilding day. Chances are if you are feeling that you are lacking and you need to find that last piece… you need to meet Jesus. He is already waiting for you.
