A Distinct Difference Between This and Myself

I had intended to sit down at my computer forty minutes ago. My mistake was walking past the table where I'm working on a jigsaw puzzle. Just one piece, and then I'd head upstairs. It didn't take me forty minutes to find one piece. But what it did take was forty minutes of my prime morning time.

I enjoy working on jigsaw puzzles. I like the coming together of scattered pieces to make a beautiful whole. The process of thoroughly examining each piece and what the pieces are to become brings their details into focus, those small-scale markings that at first may seem inconsequential when viewed as a whole. Yet, comparing the subtle difference in shape of the piece or shade of its hue, and where it belongs in the overall picture is an aha moment. It finds its proper place and becomes part of an emerging picture that shows beauty, artistry, cleverly placed objects, or maybe even in some way speaks to my soul.

I still have many pieces to add, but on the table are partially-finished cars, a few leaves on a tree, a couple of completed signs, the pieces of a white house along the side. I haven't found where one of the signs fits in the picture yet, but I know it will because of the image that it is to become. It's in process.

And so am I. As I work with each piece of the puzzle, bringing them together to conform to the image that it's becoming, I'm reminded that God is conforming me into the image of His Son. He knows that each piece fits and brings good from them all.

There is one distinct difference, however, between the puzzle and myself. It is passive, with pieces that will lie on the table until the end of time if they are not moved. It isn't expected to do anything, it has no personal responsibility to bring itself into conformity to the image on the box.

However, I do. God calls me (and all His children) to be conformed to the image of His Son through the transforming of the mind. How does the transformation happen? We pursue Him through the Word that we've been given, and the Holy Spirit uses it to conform us more and more to the image of the One we bear. This is a mysterious interplay between the providence of God and our own responsibility. We are not to be passive. We are to pursue.

And not be distracted with jigsaw puzzles that can sap prime time. So I tell myself once again that puzzles are for the evening hours when my body and mind are pretty well spent for the day. But I do hope to finish it soon to return it to my Dad. We swap puzzles every now and then.  :-)