Puzzled

This past Christmas, Fior and I went home to Las Vegas to be with our families for a couple weeks, as we usually do. It was a great time of rest from work and school. Since we were visiting for so long, there was a decent amount of down time each day. My sister-in-law, Gaby, had received a bunch of puzzles from her “Secret Santa,” so we decided to pass some of the time by putting them together. We began with a small and relatively easy one which, upon completion, would make up a painting of the nativity scene.

I first started doing puzzles when I was much younger with my great grandfather, who I called Pop. I still have puzzles of his hanging in my childhood bedroom. He would build them, cover them in some sort of adhesive, and then frame them so that they could be preserved and displayed. One puzzle of his that still hangs in that room makes up a picture of bunch of baseballs, each stamped with the logo of one of the MLB teams. The puzzle dates itself, as the D-Backs ball is purple and teal, and there are a few Expos logos in the mix. The other puzzle of his that I have hanging in there is a beautiful picture of Times Square at night.

As I began working on the nativity scene puzzle with Gaby, I remembered the way that I used to put puzzles together with Pop. We would always start with the frame, because those pieces were the easiest to identify. It doesn’t take long to collect all of the pieces that contain flat edges. You then know that the four corner pieces are somewhere in there, and without much effort, you can complete the rectangular perimeter of the puzzle. From there, we would group pieces with similar colors and patterns, since those would be likely to go together. Slowly but surely, we would iterate towards the completion of the puzzle. Completing shapes and sections would bring about some satisfaction, but placing the final piece, the ultimate reward of looking upon the full, completed picture — that satisfaction was always paramount.

I rediscovered my love for puzzles as Gaby and I completed a few different ones over the course of about a week. We completed the nativity scene puzzle, which I believe was 500 pieces, followed by a wild outer space solar system puzzle with 1000 pieces, and finally, an easy 300-piece snowy scene with a big red Christmas truck.

We are far from expert puzzlers, so we relied heavily on the reference photos to help us all along the way. But, after solving three puzzles in a week, I got to thinking about the challenge of trying to solve one without the reference photo… to just open up a bag of pieces with no idea of what the picture is ultimately supposed to look like, and trying to solve it. As it turns out, I am not the first person to think of this (no surprise). “Puzzle enthusiasts” tend to find the challenge of solving the puzzle with no reference photo “more fun.”

If you know me, you know that I love a good analogy.

Almost every morning, I sit down to study the Bible to start my day. I recently learned that one of the works of the Holy Spirit is to illuminate the scriptures to us. In other words, He aids us in understanding the things of God. The Bible tells us repeatedly that those without the Spirit find the things of God foolish.

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:14

Knowing this, I now approach the study of scripture more prayerfully. I pray that the Holy Spirit will teach me as I read, and that He will show me what He wants me to learn from each passage. My ultimate prayer is that through this process, I will come to know God, and understand Him, a little bit better each day.

And, of course, the Lord is faithful to answer these prayers. He wants to reveal Himself to us, if and when we seek Him with all our hearts.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29: 11-13

So, little by little each day, I learn something new, and my picture of the Lord becomes a little fuller… a little clearer. It is in this process that I have realized that seeking the Lord, and longing to know Him better, is not all that different from putting together a puzzle, albeit without the reference photo. Each bit of wisdom is another connection made between pieces. New insights and new understanding form shapes and patterns. Gaps are filled in. Sections are clearly defined.

Nevertheless, the full picture remains a mystery. The Bible often describes the Lord as “great” and “mighty” and many of his attributes as “unsearchable.”

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
    and his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall commend your works to another,
    and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
    and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
    and I will declare your greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
    and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

The Lord is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Lord is good to all,
    and his mercy is over all that he has made.

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
    and all your saints shall bless you!
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
    and tell of your power,
to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
    and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Psalm 145: 3-12

Philosophy and Theology lead us to an understanding that God is infinite; unbounded. He is without beginning and without end. He is spaceless, timeless, and immaterial. He is the “uncaused cause.” He is the “unmoved mover.”

Thus, the puzzle of the Lord is one of infinite pieces — a puzzle no less, but one which has no frame; no perimeter. The full picture of God is unfathomable to finite minds, corrupted by sin. The Bible teaches very clearly that it is our sin that ultimately separates us from God, and keeps us from seeing Him fully… from understanding Him fully… from knowing Him fully.

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
but your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear.

Isaiah 59: 1-2

Jesus repeatedly told his listeners to repent¹, and to follow Him. As we humble ourselves, confess our trespasses, repent, turn to follow Jesus, and begin to “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” we find hope in the promises of the beatitudes — that we will receive mercy; we will be comforted; we will be satisfied; we will see God.²

And so, throughout our lives, we chip away at the puzzle of the Lord day by day. His Spirit is faithful to assist us in filling in the gaps. We receive peace and satisfaction as we see shapes emerge, and patterns come together.

But nothing will compare to the day when we meet Him face to face, when we finally see the picture in full; no more gaps, no more questions. That satisfaction will be paramount.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

1 Corinthians 13: 9-12

1. “The word repentance in the Bible literally means ‘the act of changing one’s mind.’ True biblical repentance goes beyond remorse, regret, or feeling bad about one’s sin. It involves more than merely turning away from sin. Eerdmans Bible Dictionary includes this definition of repentance: ‘In its fullest sense it is a term for a complete change of orientation involving a judgment upon the past and a deliberate redirection for the future.’” – GotQuestions.org ↩︎
2. Matthew 5 ↩︎