(by Kim Thoday)

Once a small boy was given a jigsaw puzzle of several hundred pieces. Unfortunately, before he began putting the puzzle together, the box for the jigsaw pieces was somehow lost and of course on the front of the box was a picture of the completed puzzle. Anyone who has attempted a jigsaw puzzle with hundreds of pieces will know how important that completed picture is as a guide. The boy made long and brave efforts to put the puzzle together. But in every attempt he became increasingly frustrated. His Dad tried to help but even with the help of an adult it was too difficult. The boy did manage to put some parts of the jigsaw together and so he could see partially formed shapes. However, there came a point when he could go no further and the jigsaw lay on the lounge room floor fragmented, lacking its completed form and pattern.

Then one day his older brother, who felt quite sorry for the little fellow, arrived home with a present all wrapped up in shiny paper. Eagerly the boy pealed of the wrappings and was delighted beyond measure to find that his brother had bought him the same jigsaw and on the lid of its box was the elusive picture. He set the picture in front of himself and took upon the task once more. He decided to continue from where he had left off. His brother offered to assist, but the boy insisted that he wanted to finish the jigsaw on his own.

Now he had something definite to guide him, a sense of the whole. It thrilled him to see his puzzle taking shape; it was like seeing something grow, it was like creating your own world. For sometime he made speedy headway. It was a complex jigsaw, one of intricate detail, but in spite of having the complete picture now it was still difficult going. Many of the pieces were so similar in shape and colour. He began to despair again as he ran into blind alleys. He grew tired, discouraged and even a little angry. Once again he was to give up. What he restarted with such enthusiasm had become relentlessly painful.

His brother could sense what was happening and offered to help again. This time the offer was accepted gratefully and without hesitation. With his big brother beside him as a mentor, the young boy began to work his way forward again, piece by piece. His brother helped him work out some strategies that helped make the process quicker and more fun. Suddenly he could see where he had been going wrong and he learned to work with greater skill. What a moment it was when he held the last piece. He looked up at his brother with the most radiant smile and then leant forward and eased the piece into place. It was a moment of triumph and the two brothers hugged each other with joy. He looked at his completed jigsaw and felt a great sense of achievement.

This is what Jesus Christ does for us. Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, came to this fragmented world, to our fragmented lives with so many pieces missing, and in His life, ministry, teachings, Death and Resurrection, he gave us a picture of how the world should be and our part in it. The Old Testament is like the first jigsaw puzzle but humanity lost the picture. The New Testament is about our Brother, who came with a new picture, so we could recover the lost picture. But there is a difference for in the coming of Jesus Christ, the picture is now something very new. God not only puts a new picture before us, but he also places at our side his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be our great mentor. We have THE picture in Jesus Christ and the power of His Spirit to help us complete God’s great jigsaw puzzle for humanity and all of creation.

By the way, you know what the picture was for the boy’s jigsaw? It was a picture of the greatest miracle in all the cosmos; it was a picture from space looking back at a wonderful blue world called Earth.

Blessings in Jesus’ name,

KIM THODAY, HEWETT COMMUNITY CHURCH OF CHRIST, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

http://www.hewett.org.au