Have you ever put a puzzle together only to find that when you have all the pieces assembled, one (or more) is missing? Now granted, for a one-thousand piece puzzle that empty space is very small, but it is an unfilled space nonetheless, a vacant space which renders the puzzle incomplete and unfinished. I invariably find myself vaguely disappointed when this happens. After all the time and effort put into solving the puzzle, the puzzle remains incomplete as long as even one piece is missing. There are those who would say one piece out of a thousand doesn’t matter. But small as the missing puzzle piece might be, it still leaves a hole in the picture the puzzle creates. Every piece matters.

And the pieces are not interchangeable. I can’t take a puzzle piece from a different one-thousand piece puzzle and put it in the empty space. Even if I could find a piece with the correct shape to fit the open space in the puzzle, that piece would not have the right colors or the correct artwork on it necessary to complete the larger picture of that particular puzzle. So my puzzle is doomed to remain incomplete as long as the needed puzzle piece remains lost. Suffice it to say, I do not have a good track record of finding lost things, particularly when it comes to lost puzzle pieces.

Actually, I think I know what it feels like to be a puzzle with a missing piece or pieces. Maybe you do too, dear readers? Longing for completion, yet living life with unfilled spaces – that is the human condition at present. We are all puzzles with missing pieces. We are all works in progress. Ecclesiastes gives me a clue as to why this is so –

“He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

You and I are created in God’s image. We are created to know Him. You and I are created for eternity. That’s why eternity is in our hearts.

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

But our Creator God is too often the missing piece in our puzzle – leaving us wondering about the unsatisfied longing of our souls, a longing which never seems to leave us, as we go about our daily lives. We attribute this longing and its solution to many things – if we just had more money, if we just had a different job, if we just lived somewhere else, if only we were more talented – the list is endless. However, this longing of the human soul is nothing new. In the 1600’s Blaise Pascal wrote in his work entitled Pensees about this aspect of the human condition. A paraphrase or summation of Pascal’s point is this –

“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator made known through Jesus Christ.”

When I let God into my life, I finally find the completeness that I long for. I begin to find all the missing pieces of myself that I endlessly seek. And one day, when I am reunited with my Creator, my Savior, my Heavenly Father God – who are all one in the same, this process will be complete. On that day, I will no longer have holes left open because pieces of myself are missing and I can’t find them. My missing pieces will be fully found – every last one of them. No more missing pieces! This is the promise in God’s word –

“Now we (I) see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we (I) shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

I will be known for who I truly am, no gaps, no holes, no missing pieces of my story. And you too, dear readers, will be whole and complete. You will be fully known as your true self with no missing pieces. Just as God knows you and me completely and loves us fully, we will know each other fully and be fully known ourselves. No fear in that, just love and acceptance.

I know from experience that I have seldom found any of the missing pieces to any of my jigsaw puzzles over the years. Once lost, they have never been recovered and restored to their proper place in their original puzzle. Fortunately, my Heavenly Father has a much better track record of retrieval and restoration. Based on what King David wrote in this Psalm, I think he would agree with me. King David wrote this about God –

“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book.” (Psalm 56:8)

Yes – our Creator has seen and has collected all our tears. I’m confident that He also has possession of all our missing pieces and that He will use these pieces when He lovingly redeems and restores us, making us whole, just as He created us to be all along. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to this time – when we are each and everyone of us made whole. No more missing pieces.

“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)

sincerely, Grace Day