September 1998
I was sitting in the waiting room of the Cancer Ward of the hospital waiting for my husband who was visiting his dad. We had only been told a day or two earlier that there was nothing the doctors could do for him.
As I sat there reflecting on all of this, I began to watch the people coming and going. There were jigsaw puzzles spread out over the table and some partially completed pictures as well. Different people would stop,
ponder the puzzle, then try a piece or two and leave. Sometimes they succeeded in adding another piece to the picture, other times they failed.
As I sat there watching and looking at the scattered pieces, it dawned on me how much my life had become like that puzzle since we had received the news of my father-in-law�s condition. The pieces of our lives had been neatly arranged and we thought the puzzle was looking pretty good. Then suddenly the picture came apart and the pieces were scattered. I realized that unlike the jigsaw puzzle on the table, I couldn�t look at the picture on the box and figure out how to put it all back together again. The box lid in our life is missing! Only the Creator of the puzzle know�s how the finished picture should look! It seems like a big confusing mess of pieces to us now, and the picture God has in mind may not look like what we think it should be. But as we wait on God to put the pieces of the puzzle together we can be sure that the end result will be something beautiful.
�Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.� Phil. 1:6
�That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.� I Peter 1:7
�But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.� Job 23:10
Contents