I love puzzles. Short ones, that is. The ones with about 100 pieces that can be completed in one sitting. I love the idea of putting together a 1,000 piece puzzle. I’d set up a place for it tucked away in a quiet corner by a window so this project can always be lingering in the background. I can pass by the table on my way to the laundry room, put a few pieces together, then carry on with my laundry and other things.

I love the idea of setting the box lid before me, studying the color scheme and placing all the pieces in groups accordingly.

I love the idea of being able to match the pieces to the picture and feel the click when those pieces interlock.

I long for this in my life. Yet, so many times, I don’t find it. I can’t even find the lid with the picture! I try to group my pieces by color but so many times I can’t decipher if the green is the grass, the newly budded trees or a really cool shirt.

Then I see a piece I know will fit perfectly right HERE. With eager, shaking, adrenaline pumping hands, I place it next to its match, only to find it doesn’t fit after all.  Yes, it matches by color, but not by notches.

Other times I just stare at the already done pieces with an image in my mind of what the finished product could look like. I look back at this piece in my hand and back at the puzzle. I have no idea where this one goes.

I wish life could be a 100 piece puzzle. But it’s not. All my wishing does absolutely nothing to change that fact.

Life is an infinity piece puzzle. Some pieces fit in smoothly and easily. Others just take awhile. Some of the pieces are even missing.

Some we’ll never see this side of Heaven. Others I think are still being fashioned.

God is not in a hurry. Ever noticed that?

The Israelites wandered 40 years

Moses was on Mt Sinai 30 days

Before entering the Promised Land, the whole law was recited. (Think Graduation ceremony – this is good stuff, but when do we walk?”

Before crossing the Jordan, all the men were circumcised – all 40,000 of them!

Then, those 40,000 men had to heal

The whole army walked around the city of Jericho 1 time for 6 days. Then on the 7^th day, they walked 7 times.

Sometimes God just takes the Long Cut. But it’s always for a purpose. It is not of myself to wait on Him. I want things now. I want, I long to see the finished puzzle, but He continually says, “Wait. Be still. Know I AM God.”