A number of years ago, when we had a travel agency, my husband had an office photo taken. Our staff consisted of five young ladies and me. I was the “go-for”, the window decorator and not so good at filing our little bookkeeper informed me one day. But we were a great group and my husband loved all of us.
That Christmas he presented us each with a bag full of puzzle pieces. We had a lot of fun putting the pieces together…the office photo finally appeared.
What I noticed was that we were all an important part of the puzzle. If one piece was missing, the photo lacked its authenticity.
My friend Mary and I discussed something similar yesterday. Both widows, we recognize the piece that is missing out of our lives. What we also recognize is how much our children mean to us. It seems we too are a puzzle and we talked about the grief we had as each child left home. We knew there was a part of us missing. And we talked about how their little visits or even their phone calls mean so much more than they realize, as those bits of togetherness brings their part of the puzzle back into our lives. For those moments we are almost complete again.
Life seems to be a series of letting go of parts of our personal puzzles. Yet God does not forsake us. New friends appear, new opportunities and new babies—grand children and great grandchildren.
It seems that the vacuums in our lives have to be filled. The jigsaw puzzle that we are is composed of so many parts…I guess that what makes us individuals and maybe that is why we are each so special in God’s eyes.
