The Missing Piece

Last Christmas my husband and I were gifted a 2000-piece puzzle. Now we’ve completed several 1000-piece puzzles over the years, usually with the help of other family members and guests. But 2000? Yikes! Well, it took a few weeks as it was only the two of us available to work on it, but we finished. Kind of. Much to our dismay, we only had 1,999 puzzle pieces. We looked everywhere. We even emptied our vacuum cleaner bag, a disgusting and unproductive task. Despite the missing piece, we felt enough accomplishment to keep the completed puzzle on display for a couple weeks. I found it interesting that most people who saw it never noticed the missing piece. I even mentioned to someone that there was a piece missing and they could not see where it belonged. But it was so obvious to us.

You know, we put much effort into building our lives and striving to experience success, comfort and happiness. To the average onlooker, many of us do look like we’ve got things put together quite nicely. Especially on our social media platforms, right? But we’ve done the building of our lives and we know where the missing pieces are.

As I’ve been home today, I have been watching a lot of local news coverage because here in Minneapolis we had another horrible situation involving federal officials and local citizens. There are two very opposite stories being told, just as there have been for weeks. I believe there’s a missing piece here–the absolute truth. How can we know it?

Perhaps in the midst of chaos some of us are sensing a missing piece. Do you, reader, find yourself feeling worried or unsettled about what the newsfeeds are communicating? Or maybe your life is pretty comfortable and you’ve got all the stuff you could ever want and your family is healthy and you live in a quiet, safe neighborhood and… but there’s still a nagging part of you that just seems unsettled, like there’s a missing piece. Have you ever been away on a restful vacation in a beautiful setting, laughing and enjoying special time away from the routine, yet a strange sense of emptiness resides? What is this missing piece?

Some people are rolling through life without a care, but the thought of death is quickly shunned. That brings a lot of uncertainty and discomfort, many hoping they did enough good to make their way to heaven. If there is a heaven. What would happen after they die leaves only questions. A missing piece that causes, well, missing peace.

If any of this regrettably resonates with you, dear reader, I think I may know what–or who–the missing piece is. Although we can never know absolute truth in many situations here on earth, we can know the author of truth and place our trust in Him. If you simply have a bothersome emptiness that you can’t quite put your finger on, a relationship with Jesus can fill that void. If you are uncertain about what happens when you die, placing your trust in the One who gave you life and whose Son gave His life for you can give you a confidence about how you’ll spend eternity.

Claiming this truth does not mean I am saying we don’t continue to have hardships or experience weariness at all the sadness and hurt around us. Today I am grieved at what I see happening in the world around me. But I am not worried. My hope is sure. The Lord is my rock. (Psalm 18) In this world, we will have trouble but my Savior has overcome the world. (John 16:33)

I’m still hopeful that puzzle piece #2000 will miraculously show up when I least expect it. But I’m especially hopeful that any missing piece in your lives, friends, can be filled with peace that only knowing Jesus can give. Missing peace? Jesus is the missing piece.

P.S. Let’s play a game. Send me a message to tell me where the missing piece of the puzzle in the photo is located. It seems pretty obvious to me. 🙂