Static vs Dynamic

I have always enjoyed puzzles. As a young girl, I looked forward to each new issue of Highlights magazine and its Hidden Pictures page. It was always sad that there was only one of these pages in every magazine. When my kids were little, they were given books from Highlights that only had Hidden Pictures pages. So smart!

I used to sell books for a company called Usborne, now called PaperPie, and the puzzle books were always popular with various age groups. They were fun for road trips, doctor visits, and when lounging at home. You can’t go wrong with the 1001 Things to Spot books.

Word searches, logic puzzles, and jigsaw puzzles have been an ongoing part of my life. ThinkFun games filled our house for years. Every now and then the Nintendo 3DS gets pulled out to play a Professor Layton puzzle. I still play Wordle most days, and at various times during the year we have a jigsaw puzzle set up in the living room.

Last year we were introduced to PuzzleTwist jigsaw puzzles, where the picture on each box is a bit different than the picture you actually assemble. The company offers three versions of a twist.

In their “Mixed Up!” puzzles, the pictures on the box stay the same, but they get rearranged into a different layout. In their “Something’s Amiss!” puzzles, the pictures on the box might remain in the same spot, but additional images are often added to the scene, the colors in the puzzle might change, or objects might be deleted. In their “What’s Up?” puzzles, the basics of the picture stay the same, but the story changes, so the box image could look like summertime, but the actual puzzle is a winter scene. 

Years ago, I envisioned following Jesus being like a jigsaw puzzle. I would live a bit, discover a piece of the puzzle, and then see how it fit into the story of my life. I imagined that Jesus had the box with the completed picture, and that while I could only see the pieces being added slowly over time, I could trust that there was an image out there that would be complete one day. It was comforting to me amidst the unknown.

Now, I think the puzzle of my life is actually a bit more like these PuzzleTwist puzzles. I live a bit, think I understand how the pieces fit together, and then find out a few months or years down the road that the picture Jesus and I are making has taken on a different hue than what I first imagined. The bits of the picture I could see have shifted, like a slide puzzle into place elsewhere, reshaping the picture - creating room for something new or different.

It feels like a gift to imagine a story with Jesus that is constantly growing and changing. A picture that isn’t static, but dynamic. In this season of life, I find the mystery of it all surprisingly comforting. 

How about you? 

~ Melissa