The jigsaw puzzle called life.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!   -author unknown

My kids got me a puzzle this Christmas, as I thought it would be a good idea to do a puzzle over the winter. 

Well, this was a 1,000-piece puzzle with a lot of white in it, and the fun didn’t last very long. Even with 33 inches of snow on the ground and no possibility of leaving my house, I gave up in a few days. 

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the puzzle that my life is currently. It’s not a crazy, 1,000-piece mostly white puzzle, but I was thinking that the pieces aren’t fitting as easily as I thought. 

Then, of course, I thought, why do you think they should all fit so perfectly and be so easy? 

Don’t we all want to know the next move, how the next piece is supposed to fit, so that it will be easy to find the next jigsaw piece of life?

This morning, I went to Yoga in the Park and found a piece of the puzzle that fit so well. Being outside overlooking the water, doing yoga with others who love this practice.

The teacher told us a parable about a man who thought that, in his kindness, he was helping the caterpillar break free from its cocoon. But with his help, he stunted the butterfly's growth. 

This reminded me that the puzzle pieces will fit when they are ready to fit, and if they don’t, they are not the correct pieces. 

I guess they call these jigsaw puzzles for a reason; we jig, and we jag through our days, and hopefully find peace knowing we are exactly where we are meant to fit.