Issue 1394 – Missing Piece – March 13, 2024
Over the years, I’ve had an on-again-off-again love affair with jigsaw puzzles. We did a lot of them when I was growing up. In later years, I would work on them compulsively and do puzzle after puzzle, then stop and not do another for years.
There were times when the kitchen table couldn’t be used for eating because a partially completed puzzle was always underway.
We tried doing them on boards, but then finding a spot to keep the board was always a hassle. The boards just fit best on the table. We tried the roll-up felt puzzle mats, but they never seemed to work quite right.
There was always a sense of satisfaction in finally completing the puzzle. Every now and then, though, we’d find that one was missing when we got down to the last few pieces. That proved to be very frustrating. There was nothing that could be done about it either. Even if you bought an identical puzzle to get the missing piece, you were still left with an incomplete new puzzle that was missing the piece.
Something similar happens with God. He created us with a piece missing in our spirit. Now, there are places where the God-shaped hole fails as a metaphor, but it does have some merit.
Blaise Pascal first penned the concept: “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” – Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII(425)
The Scripture bears the idea out in many places.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, or “‘In him we live and move and have our being; Acts 17:24-28a
We try to fill the void with many things, but none of them seem to work. Money, power, fame, sex, drugs, possessions, careers, adrenalin sports, marriage, repeated marriages, extra-marital affairs, children, and more get thrown into the void. All fail to fill the hole perfectly. There is only one thing that can fill that hole: a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The blessing, of course, is that the void tells us there is more to life. It helps us seek fulfillment and can lead us to being restored to God our Father through Christ.
Until next time, rejoice that He left us something to cause us to search for Him.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV)