By: Carissa Lovvorn
Ahhh…fresh snow. Time for sledding, snowmen, fun-filled giggles, warm blankets, and hot chocolate. Playing outdoors until I was frozen was paramount in all my snow day memories…until this year. My recent ankle injury and upcoming surgery kept me from enjoying the winter fun. While my girls and husband bundled up to hit the “slopes” of our back yard, I settled in to work on a 1,000-piece puzzle.
I get a little obsessed while trying to finish a puzzle. There is just something about putting pieces together to make a beautiful picture. However, when you are working on a large puzzle, matching pieces aren’t always easy to find. About halfway through the puzzle, I found myself looking intently for a specific piece to finish off one of the sections. I probably went through the box a dozen times. I decided to give up on finding that one. Then a dark notion came over me. “What if it is missing?…No, no Carissa. It is there, you just can’t see it,” I assured myself. Then I thought about how much trust a person has when working on a puzzle. Trust that the pieces are all there, that they will fit together appropriately, and that the picture will turn out how the maker designed it.
The faith used while working on a puzzle is much like the faith that’s required on our spiritual journey. Like a puzzle, there are times when our “pieces” obviously go together. I would call those the times when life is easy and carefree. There are colorful and intricate pieces. These may be a little harder to put together, but they are pleasing to the eye, so it makes the challenge enjoyable. These pieces are like the good things in life. They may require work, but they have good rewards. Then there are the darker pieces. The pieces whose colors are muddled which makes it harder to find the matches. These are our valleys — times when life doesn’t make sense, and we question the bigger plan.
My life contains a lot of dark pieces, and I’ve struggled with not knowing the ending or thinking there may be a missing piece. Basically, at times, I’ve questioned God. How can He use my heartache for the bigger picture?
Fortunately, I don’t have to rest on my own understanding. Scripture tells us that God works everything together for the good of those who love him. Furthermore, God proclaimed “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do. I will not forsake them.” (Isaiah 42:16 KJV)
Through faith we can continue connecting the pieces of our journey. We don’t have to see the final picture to know that God is making it beautiful. We can also learn to appreciate the dark parts, because we need the shadows to notice the beauty in the highlights.
Many Blessings,
By: Carissa Lovvorn
January 3, 2025
