Puzzles

^{by Jon}

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalms 139:14

After moving to Takhro at the end of June, one of the ways that has gradually grown more apparent is the need to engage children in the village. With this in mind, we started our children’s club every Saturday morning to not only teach English but also to share Christ through stories, songs and activities.

As part of the preparations, we bought a few sets of jigsaw puzzles as toys for the kids to play with during children’s club. While the picture on each puzzle looked simple when we bought it, as the kids opened each puzzle out and poured the pieces onto the floor, we realized that piecing them back together may be more difficult than we thought. The lack of a picture to refer to, coupled with kids pouring pieces from different puzzles into the same pile, left us scratching our heads even as we helped the kids in this arduous task. Some kids would try to jam together pieces that do not fit, resulting in each puzzle often looking like an Escher painting.

As we get to know these kids, we realize that most of their lives are like these unfinished puzzles. Some have missing pieces to what many consider a complete childhood. For others, like wrong pieces jammed in, have misbeliefs about themselves and the world around them. Life for most of them comprises an incomplete puzzle, a picture of their uncertainty towards their family, dreams and future. And like the unfinished puzzles that sit before us at the end of each Saturday morning, we are left feeling helpless as to how we can show these kids God’s love and goodness.

In Psalms 139, the psalmist issues a wonderful assurance that we, as God’s image bearers, are fearfully and wonderfully made. This does not depend on which family we are born into, which country we reside or what strata of society we belong to. God does not see our lives as unfinished puzzles devoid of meaning but has seen the complete picture of our lives even before we are born. God sees the picture and calls it wonderful.

When we manage to finish a puzzle, I will usually hand over the final piece to the child who has been working on it. As she fits in the final piece, there is sparkle and joy in her eyes as she finally sees the full puzzle. That is what I imagine God must feel when His children realize their destiny in Him. Beyond puzzles, English teaching and Bible stories, this is our hope for all the kids that pass through our door – for them to recognize that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by a God who loves them.