My daughters and I spread out
the puzzle pieces and picked out the edges. After we had a nice edge, the
middle filled in rapidly. To our dismay, we came up one piece short.
“Did you girls see the missing
piece anywhere?” I wondered.
“No,” they answered together.
“But I did pick some pieces
off the floor yesterday,” Katie went on. “Maybe I missed a piece.”
Together, Katie and I
searched. Under the chair. Under the couch. Beneath the couch cushions. It wasn’t
there. If anything annoys me, it’s a missing puzzle piece. It makes the puzzle
worthless. Besides, the piece has to be somewhere! So we searched again. Still
no puzzle piece.
“Oh well,” I said. “It might
turn up yet.”
The next morning, my husband
and I gathered our family together for devotions. Katie said her memory verse,
and I opened the Bible. Out fell the missing puzzle piece! I held it up
triumphantly, and Katie exclaimed, “The missing piece was in the Bible!”
Yes, the missing piece was in
the Bible.
Often life’s puzzles, with
their missing pieces, annoy me. I want to know what is missing in our child
training. Why do we struggle with so much grumpiness and disobedience? I wonder
what is missing in some of our relationships. Why would Christians have painful
relationships? I want answers to life’s questions—and I want them now, please.
And so I search. I ask my
friends. I look through the books on our shelves. I read stories and articles.
But how it must grieve God when I don’t search for the missing piece in His
Word.
I may look under the chair and
beneath the cushions. This time, however, my missing piece was in the Bible.
-Emeline Lehman
Family Life, July 2014
