This rainy summer has been a great time for puzzles. My husband gives me puzzles for holidays and birthday gifts. He picks out seasonal ones, Christmas, lakeside scenes and foreign places. I have the lakeside ones with me.

I love doing puzzles.  They remind me of my mother.  A lot of things remind me of my mother.  It is good to be reminded of how fortunate I was that God assigned Kit to be my mother.  

Strangely, we didn’t do a lot of puzzles as children.   Too many little pieces and too many little kids could have been the reason.  However, when I moved to Florida in the early 2000’s, I became my mother’s temporary only child and then, we did puzzles.

I can still see Mom examining the puzzle pieces.  She would pick up each piece and turn it, first one way and then the other; looking for subtle differences in color and shape.  Searching for just the right piece for the area of the puzzle she was working on. 

I am not that patient.  I look for all the bright colors and pile them together.  I work on one section at a time and when I can’t discern any differences in the pieces, I sort them by shape. I have even given them names, like “dancing man”, “fences”, “four arms”, and “snowflakes.”

Mom always had a card table set up with a puzzle in the works.  Our cottage is tiny and setting up another table is difficult, so puzzles need to be started and completed quickly. Sometimes Rich will lend a hand, but mostly he encourages.

Puzzles also remind me of the Great Puzzler.  Who? You ask.  Why our Heavenly Father and Creator, of course!  What a puzzle He created when he designed and set in motion our world and all the universes.  I try to think about what went into the divine plan, but I am overwhelmed with all the details and different directions that creation has taken.  Proof that a being with abilities beyond earthly limitations started our world.

I ask for serenity to accept the things that I cannot understand.  I ask for the grace to accept the love given by the Creator without hesitation or question. Then, the pieces of this living puzzle begin to fall into place. 

I am convinced without a doubt that God loves you (and me) unconditionally.  Read Isiah 40:28

Terri