How frustrating it is to work for days on a puzzle only to find that several of the pieces are missing! During Christmas break, we often have a table set up with a jigsaw puzzle for family members to work on as they so fancy. It is hard not to walk by without trying to insert a few pieces here and there.
One particular year, we had a beautiful Thomas Kinkade scene that we had worked on for hours. However, as we got closer to seeing the completed picture, we were so disappointed by the many holes. The empty spaces really took away from the beauty of the scene, and left us feeling unsatisfied with the unfinished work of art.
This was our puzzle room.
That is sometimes how we can feel in our lives. We feel unfinished or incomplete at times, and that can keep us from accomplishing some of the great things that God has designed for us to do. We see the holes in our lives and become discouraged by the emptiness we find.
Unfortunately, we often seek to fill those empty places with various vices, such as busyness, overworking, overeating, substance abuse, shopping, relationships, amusement, accomplishments, hobbies, etc. We might even try to fill those empty places with our spouses, children, or our social circles, but that puts an unfair burden on them to fill a need they were never intended to fill.
In marriage especially, we can become discouraged when our spouses cannot fill those deep crevices that gnaw at us for fulfillment. We say to our husbands early in marriage, “You complete me,” and then become disillusioned later on when we realize that another human being can never complete us! What a strain on a marriage! Any time we seek fulfillment in earthly things, we are left feeling emptier than ever before because these substitutions can never fill those gaps that are intended only for God to fill.
But, there is hope!
Back to the Christmas puzzle, suddenly my son says, “I found them!” Apparently, a few pieces had fallen under the table and no one had noticed. Once we inserted the pieces, the finished product was beautiful! What a feeling of accomplishment! We could see that only those exact pieces were shaped to fit perfectly into the empty spaces. And only the pieces designed for this puzzle could complete the picture and make it beautiful. How silly would it have been to try to fill those spaces with pieces from another puzzle? But, isn’t that like what we do when we try to fill our lives with anything other than God?
You see, our Creator designed us with missing pieces so that we would seek Him to fill the void. Only He can fit those God-shaped spaces in our lives. What is so wonderful is that when He comes in, we are made complete, whole, perfect, and beautiful in His sight! We are a complete masterpiece!
Please don’t settle for substitutes. Trust in the only One who can truly fill us and perfect us. Allow yourself to learn true fulfillment by allowing God to complete you.
Today’s Prayer… (by Debbie Alsdorf, from Faith Dare)
Father, thank you for your work on the cross, a sacrifice that often seems so academic to me. Make it a real-life part of my belief system. I don’t know how to embrace or believe the significance of this on my own. Work your truth in me. By faith I thank you that I am complete in You and I am enough, competent, adequate, sufficient for all You have called me to do, because You complete me!
If we believed we are complete in Christ, we could stop our search for something more and could begin living life. ~Debbie Alsdorf
And in Him you have been made complete. Colossians 2:10
