The Peak of Inspiration

I’m sure most of you can relate to the feeling you get when setting a puzzle and, after many hours of searching, fitting, and patience, you get to the final ten pieces.  Then the last five, then three, then one.  And it’s not there.  You look around, brush the carpet, search under the table, lift the runner, turn the puzzle box upside down.  But there is no piece.  And regardless of how hard you try to see beauty in the pieces that are there, your eye is drawn to the hole.  The absence.  The gap.  It is incomplete. The picture is not what it was intended to be.

I was born into this time, into this place, for a purpose.  The One Above had a vision of a picture that He wanted to show to the world.  And I don’t understand the logic here, but he found a spot in that picture that only I could fill.  He gave me a place.  That’s a mystery.  Mysteries don’t have answers, so I can’t tell you the reasoning behind that logic. 

This is a broken world.  Left to ourselves, we are a pile of upside down and out of place pieces.  So much less than a piece of art.  We’re just a mess, a heap of uncoordinated and jumbled humanity. 

But that’s when a miracle happens.  A hand reaches down and starts the sorting.  With the master design to guide, we are lifted out and positioned.  Placed side by side and end to end.  I can’t tell you when or where this happens.  We can’t see that part.  There is some really thick fog between where that happened and where we are now.

By myself, I’m not much to look at.  The colors and patterns don’t have much context or meaning.  I have some jagged and uneven edges.  I’m lopsided and unbalanced.  Saddest of all, I can get lost. 

But when I take my place, when I stand shoulder to shoulder, when I hold hands with the one beside me, everything starts to make sense.  The picture starts to form.  The crooked edges disappear.  The unbalanced parts level out.  The uncoordinated finds its rhythm.  My contribution, just a tiny piece of the picture, makes a difference. 

Here’s the tough part.  The Maker gave us a choice.  Will we take our place?  Will we fill our small spot in the picture?   Fill the hole that mirrors the shape of our heart?  Step up and into the position that was designed for us and that we were designed for? 

Or will we go missing?  Will we be the one that can’t be found when the need is real?  Be the one who’s absence is noticed and felt.  The one that provides a connection between, the one that fills the gap.

I’m a piece of the picture.  Maybe even more than one picture.  The picture of a family.  The picture of a community.  The picture of a peer group and a congregation.  You are, too. 

This life is a puzzle.  Seems like it doesn’t make sense more often than it does.  But I have a faith that it can be beautiful.  That, despite the chaos, despite the heap of confusion and disorganization, an inspiring scene can emerge.  I believe that if we stand side by side, if we hold each other up, if we lock arms, if we refuse to quit, the picture starts to form.  Puzzles have solutions.  Puzzles can be solved.  We can be a part of that.  In fact, we must be a part.  If there is to be an answer, a picture that pleases us and others, we will need to take our place. 

Do that.  Maybe I don’t like my piece, but I do think I need to see the value of what I, and only I, can contribute.  To shoulder my responsibilities and show up.  Be there for the ones around me. 

Because if I don’t, who will?  I’m the only father my children have.  I’m the only husband for my wife.  My place is here.  It is now.  Without me, the picture is incomplete. 

So, join me.  Stand beside me.  Together, we’ll make a picture.  Beautiful and complete.  A puzzle solved.