I made an interesting observation this morning.
The boys were going through the puzzle basket, and took out lots of puzzle pieces.
Some of the pieces weren’t even in their right packets/boxes. And we’ve lost or thrown away some of the boxes (because space). So, it was so interesting seeing them, as they sorted through the mess and just started putting together the pieces that go together.
The most interesting thing was watching them put together a bigger puzzle they’d never done before, which had no box or sample picture.
I knew what it was but they had no idea what the final picture was supposed to be like but they each started building parts of the picture, and they would put the parts together as they made sense.
I thought it was such a perfect picture of this life.
God has seen our lives and our story from beginning to end, and yet journeys with us as we figure out the the puzzle pieces that make up our lives.
I had a really cool epiphany as I watched them working together to figure the puzzle out. I realised how it is exactly the same with life. We are supposed to be figuring our puzzles together.
We are called to do this life thing together, in community.
There are specific talents, gifts and abilities that we’ve each been given….and these are not just for us but they’re meant for the people around us, to bless, help and serve them. As at a bring-and-share party, as we each come with our gifts, everyone gets to a enjoy a little bit of this and that, and we’re all enriched and love more abundantly as a result.
One of my grievances towards this urban SA context that I find myself living in is definitely how Westernised/individualistic our culture has become….so far from the beauty that is our African culture of community.
I think the biggest lesson from this morning was that, if we changed our perspective of how we relate to each other, to one where we try to see if there’s anything that we have that can help serve the next person to realise their “puzzle”, we would truly be a winning community
Banner photo by Hans-Peter Gauster on Unsplash