THE MISSING PIECE

For the past week, my kids and I have been putting together a 1,000 piece puzzle with an American flag, sunset and a bald eagle on it. After finally getting the last few (really hard) pieces in their designated place, we still had a hole. One piece was missing.

I knew it was missing for a couple of days, but was not able to find it anywhere. I had resolved to accept the fact that the piece was missing and probably was missing when I bought it (used).

My, now four year old, daughter was looking at the puzzle and said, "Oh Mommy, one piece is missing." I said "Yes, I know." She began looking for the missing piece. She insisted that the piece was in this soft sided box I keep school stuff in and was looking through it to find the piece.

I tried to convince her that it was gone and not in the box. When she would not give up looking in the school box for the missing piece, I agreed to look in there for her. As I started taking items out of the box, I very quickly saw the missing piece. She had been right! How did she know it was there?

My answer to that question is that from her perspective, low to the ground, she had a different view of life and objects. Why she didn't say something sooner, I'll never know. I learned a couple of lessons from her and the puzzle.

I learned never to give up. It was quite challenging to complete the puzzle. I found great satisfaction seeing it come together. I even gave up a couple of nights on Facebook and email to work on the puzzle. The greatest lesson I learned, is that EVERYONE has something to contribute to the family. My daughter, because of her keen observation, was able to put in the coveted "last piece" of the puzzle in making it complete.

This reminded me that God uses the most unlikely people of this world to carry out his plans.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (New International Version)

²⁶Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."


Do you feel like you are not usable by God? None of us are worthy, but all of us are desirable to God. He loves us no matter what. Question is, will you accept God's gift of love and in return, love him back? When you do, he will use the person you have become to do incredible things to advance his kingdom.