The Spirituality of Puzzles

For three days now I have been stuck in the parsonage. I haven't spent this much time in the house since the week I was stuck at home with the swine flu. When I had the swine flu I slept most of the day. Sleep is a good time killer.
Before the snow arrived, I went to the store and picked up necessary supplies. You can't go through a blizzard without bread, eggs, milk, soda, water, and pizza. I also picked up a 1000 piece puzzle.
I bought the puzzle in case the power went out and I found myself stuck at home without television, internet, and Netflix. Praise the Lord the power has yet to go out. However, that didn't keep me from trying to put the puzzle together.
It takes a long time to put 1000 puzzle pieces together. The puzzle really helped me pass the time away.
While putting the puzzle together I started thinking about faith and spirituality. In many ways our lives are like puzzles. We are composition of several fragmented pieces. When we put the pieces together we realize who we are.
If you have ever put a puzzle together you know it isn't easy. The puzzle I bought was collection of various Saturday Evening Post covers painted by Norman Rockwell. I started the endeavor by finding all the straight edge and corner pieces. I always begin a puzzle with the frame.
Next I sorted out the colors. This puzzle had a large blue image. I sorted out all the blue pieces and started putting the pieces together. I was able to get most of the image pieced together. There were a few pieces I couldn't find.
These blank pieces are what got me thinking about life and spirituality. Most of our lives have missing pieces. We are not a complete image. We need something to fill in the blanks.
That is where Jesus comes into the picture. In Christ we become fully human. I guess you could say Christ provides the pieces to fill in the blanks of our lives. However, I think Christ does a bit more.
Have you ever tried to put a puzzle together without looking at the picture on the box? I wouldn't even try to put a puzzle together without an image to work with.
Jesus is our image. Jesus not only fills in the missing pieces of our lives, but when we look at him we see what our lives are supposed to look like.
So how is the puzzle of your life looking? Are the pieces coming together? Do you have missing pieces? Do you have a bunch of random colored pieces that you are trying to sort through? If you are having problems, then maybe you need to get some help and look at the cover of the puzzle box.