peace: puzzle

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas growing up we had a puzzle. I guess I have always been pretty analytical because for as long as I can remember, I have loved puzzles. I am not sure what it is about them.
Maybe it is the fact that it keeps me busy for a while.
Maybe it is the the frustration of it all.
Maybe it is the beautiful pictures of wagons and snowfalls and pumpkins...surely that is not it.

Maybe it is seeing chaos turn to something beautiful.

The Greek word for "anxious" finds its root in a word that means "to divide or separate into parts."
It makes perfect sense.

Those times that we get stressed out about the future,
the times we get nervous about paying bills,
the days we worry about our health or the health of a loved one,
the moments we fret about the job we are unhappy with,
the seconds we spend thinking about why he or she left...

we have separated life into parts.

I have learned over the past few years that somehow everything is connected. No moment or circumstance can stand alone. The more I am aware of that fact, the truer it is. Something had to happen to allow another something to happen and so on.

My life is a testament to that truth.

But there are moments when the connection between the past and the present and the future is cloudy at best.
I love puzzles.
So, I try to figure it all out. I want to know how yesterday led me to today. I want to know what the combination of the two means for my future.
But more often than not, the pieces do not quite fit.

So, I stare at the pieces...
focusing on them...
concentrating on them...
distracted from everything else...
distracted from the present...
distracted from the puzzle.

That is when I get anxious.
When I make life about the pieces and less about the picture in the puzzle.
When I am distracted from the the truth.

That is when I lack peace.

Just as "anxious" finds its root to mean "separate into parts",
"peace" finds its root in "to join".

We are all searching for peace. We want purpose and meaning to our lives. We want to know we are where we need to be. We want to feel the serenity and calm.

We want it all to join together.

Peace, though, does not come from trying to make it all fit.
Peace comes from knowing that it DOES fit.

Peace is not seeing the pieces of the puzzle, but seeing the puzzle in the pieces.
Peace is accepting that while today may not fit with your yesterday or your tomorrow, it fits in the big puzzle of life.
What if we lived life with this awareness? How would it change your perspective on your seconds? On your moments?

Peace came on Christmas day thousands of years ago.
Because when He came, it made it all fit together.

Peace be with you.
True peace.