My husband and I go through jigsaw puzzle kicks. Sometimes we will be in the mood to work on them. But other times we will go months or years without even looking at one. Right now we are on a kick. Over the past several weeks we have completed seven puzzles. We started on number eight, but it seems our interest has fizzled a bit with that one.

Interestingly, one of the puzzles we recently completed has a story to it. We started this puzzle once before a few years ago. We lived in a different home then. We had a folding table with a piece of white cardboard on top of it set up in our living room in front of one of the two sofas. We didn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to it. (You know, real life and all that!) Therefore the puzzle sat there for some time, as we tried to work on it here and there. This puzzle was one thousand pieces, with stunning colors in the sky above, a serene cabin, and an inviting lake.

There was also a streak of fog that sat between the sky and the lake. When we finished this section we discovered that there was a piece missing. The fog had a unique color which set it apart from the rest of the puzzle and made it easy to see that the piece we needed was not there. Multiple times we went through all the remaining pieces, we looked under the cardboard, we peeked in the cracks of the table, and we dug in the couch cushions. We looked everywhere, but to no avail. We finally moved the table into a different room, scratching our heads. Did the dog eat it? Did one of the kids do something with it? We were puzzled! (Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun!) Finally we put the puzzle pieces back in the box and gave up on it.

Many months later we decided to sell our home and move across town. One night we were in our new home watching TV. When we got up from the couch, what did we find on the tile floor? You guessed it – that missing puzzle piece! We couldn’t believe it. We were flabbergasted, to say the least.

The only explanation is that the piece was stuck in the couch. But it amazed us that it stayed there even when we moved. The couch had been moved into a pod, the pod was moved across town, and then the couch was moved from the pod into our new home. All that jostling and it stayed put.

When we found the piece, I marked the back of it, so that we would know which one it was. And I stuck it in the box. Luckily we had not trashed the puzzle yet! We found the piece almost two years ago, so it still took us time to get back to the puzzle. But now it is complete!

Maybe it’s the writer in me, but I wondered what lesson could be learned from this. Two things came to mind…

1 – No matter how lost a situation may seem, there is always hope.

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. – Romans 12:12 NLT

2 – Have patience, wait upon the Lord and His timing.

Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. – Psalm 27:14 NLT