In Pieces

GOD KNOWS HOW YOU DO YOUR PUZZLES.

~ Sidney Victoria Sawyer Noland

Every day, Lucy and I work on putting together a puzzle at meal times in BBHall.  It's kind of our thing.  Sometimes, well, most times, we stay for hours after dinner just sitting at the table looking at hundreds of pieces trying to figure it out.  Once you start, you just can't stop.

Lucy and I do puzzles quite differently.  We both have the same general idea - do the outside edge first then you can start on the inside.  But the way our minds work in how we go about doing this is very different.  Both effective and get the job done, just different.

Lucy is good at picking up a piece, looking at the big picture and finding exactly where that piece should go.  She will take the time to finish one aspect of the puzzle - like on our current puzzle, the cheese knife on the bottom right or the wine bottle label.  There always seems to be just that one piece that she is specifically looking for and it's such a joy when she finally finds it and that part is completed.  

I, on the other hand, will have a number of pieces in front of me, all with something in common - like a certain color or a certain design.  I might glance once or twice at the big picture to have some kind of general idea where these pieces might go but it doesn't help me too much.  I will take these similar looking pieces and look only at them until I have put them together.  I'll sometimes have multiple sections and when I can finally connect them all, I am able to see what these pieces actually make when they are in place.  It's such a joy when that is completed.

One night as we were working on this puzzle, I said to Lucy,

"I do this so much better when I have no idea what I'm doing."

Story of my life.

Putting together a puzzle is a process.  Sometimes, well, most times, a very long process requiring patience and a desire to work at it and trust that you will see the end result.  As I have most likely said countless times, pretty much everything in my life is a process.  I don't always know where all the pieces go or what the picture will look like in the end.  But there I sit.  Night after night.  Connecting these pieces.  Waiting in anticipation to put the final piece in.

I am 100% confident in the way I do puzzles.  The method I use works for me.  The method Lucy uses works for her.  I could try her method and she could try mine but at the end of the day, we both know what works best for us.  God knows how we do puzzles because He wired us that way.  

What would it be like if I could be this confident in the way God speaks to me and the way I live my life?  

God speaks differently to each person.  He is so creative that each of us hear and comprehend and take action in all different ways which He has created specifically in us.  

 For some, God speaks so clearly and directly.

Some, in scripture.

Some, in songs.

 For others, in questions.  

For me:

in pieces.