Piece of the Puzzle

Someone told me about a ‘God Shaped Hole’

That mysterious missing piece in a person’s life

Only a god-shaped deity can fill

A round peg for a round hole

A square peg for a square hole

A god shape for your heart

Like a piece missing from a jigsaw puzzle

Only complete

When that last piece is in its place.

 

Someone told me about a man who spent 7 years

Carefully, painstakingly

Building a huge jigsaw puzzle

Thousands of days and thousands of pieces

But at the end a space, an empty place

One piece was lost

Nothing else in the world would fit

Nothing else would do, so what did they do?

A special piece, one of a kind, was created

He held it in the palm of his hand

Lingering, savouring, caressing, delighting

Then gently, reverently, positioning it

In the centre of his world, his jigsaw puzzle

In the place it had been especially designed for

A special shape, a special size for a special place

Designed for, purposed for, longed for

It completed the picture

That ‘til then was incomplete

 

If there is a ‘God-Shaped Hole’

There is also a ‘Me Shaped Hole’

There is a world, a life, a purpose that precedes me

That is much larger than my imagination

Designed for me

I have learned that if I go my own way

Try to fit an alternate life

Squeeze into a space not designed for me

I am lost

I have learned that if I allow myself to be taken up

Placed in the palm of God’s hand

Held in God’s heart

If I run to him as a child runs to her Father

He will embrace me and carefully place me

In the space designed for me

The full picture is then complete

I am complete

One whole life restored.

Wendy Rush

(First published as One Whole Jigsaw in ‘One Whole Life: words for the Journey’  August 2010).

The story of the man who worked for 7 years to complete a jigsaw puzzle is true. His story was published around the world in May 2010. The manufacturer had long since stopped making the puzzle, but agreed to make one special piece to fit. The jigsaw was 5 ft wide and had 5,000 pieces. It was a picture of James Tissot’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son.

Author: Rise Magazine

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