Our family took the down time this week-end to put together a 550 piece puzzle. We started on Thursday evening and finished up Sunday afternoon. We didn’t do it all at one time. Instead, when someone felt the desire to work on it, they spent time at the table working. They would work a while and then take a break. Sometimes one person would work and at times all four of us were working. We laughed and helped each other with the sections we were working on. Now I won’t say there weren’t times of tension. The tension was not brought on by family members. The tension was brought on by the fact that there appeared to be pieces of the puzzle missing. I can’t think of anything more frustrating than attempting to complete a puzzle, only to feel as if a piece, a main piece, is missing. This was a feeling we experienced a couple time during the process.
Experiencing the frustration allowed me to think about the people in the world who are going through life not having Christ in their lives. Not having Christ living in your heart does not mean life will not be good. There are plenty of people living good and happy lives without claiming to be Christ followers. You can still live life without Christ. Those pieces of puzzle we thought were missing were not causing us to not continue working on the puzzle. We could still have fun and work.
However, there would have come a point where not having the puzzle pieces would have affected the outcome. The puzzle would have never been completed and we would have never really finished what we started. For the Christian, living on this earth is just working on the puzzle of life. One day, the ultimate goal is to live with Christ in Heaven. When we are no longer on the earth, our goal is to hear Christ say, “well done thy good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23) Or, as we hear read at funeral services, Paul says to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8) Completion, just like when working a puzzle, is about working until the end. But we can’t do that if a piece is missing. Living eternally with Christ is the ultimate goal for all of us. However, that cannot happen if a piece is missing. That piece is having Christ living in our hearts. Without accepting Christ as our Savior, we do not have that one piece that assures us eternal life.
If you have not accepted Christ, you can do it today. All you have to do is pray, ask God to forgive you and to live in your heart. Thankfully we found the missing pieces to complete our puzzle. I pray you have Christ in your life so when that day comes, you will not be missing the key piece to eternal life. Until next week…
Peace and Blessings.. Johnny
