How to solve a puzzle

Have you ever tried to solve a puzzle in the dark? You might wonder who would ever attempt such a feat, but I wouldn’t put it past someone to try!
If someone were to attempt it and actually complete it, an interesting thing would happen. Though every puzzle shape may fit perfectly, the picture would be inevitably distorted and unrecognizable. And what joy would one have it that? You see, in any given puzzle, each puzzle-piece shape is used multiple times. There are few unique pieces. That means one piece’s shape can fit into any number of other places perfectly… BUT, the picture will only look right if it’s in the one unique place it was created for. And in the dark you might be able to make the shapes fit, but you could never solve the puzzle! Ok, well, you already knew all that.What’s the moral of the story?
You can’t truly solve a puzzle without adequate light.
That is especially true concerning spiritual things. We needs God’s Holy Spirit illuminated “light” to help us figure out those tough puzzles in life. We think we see something, or hear something, or discern something. Or we are confused about something. We have a few pieces, and we think we found where they fit. But if we are not careful, and do not have God’s insight, we can come to wrong conclusions. We may haphazardly construct a distorted picture.

Paul said to the Colossian church “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (1:19). And in Ephesians 1:17-18 “… that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.” (NKJV) See also James 1:5-6.

When life spins out puzzles, we need to remember that God grants wisdom and light to solve puzzles. But don’t expect Him to reveal to you everything you want to know. I suspect He gives us light to solve those puzzles that are needful of being solved.

What puzzles are you pondering in recent days?

One can’t rejoice in a puzzle solved until it is inspected in the light and found to be an accurate picture.

—DW