As I spent my last days on Lopez Island, there was a one thousand piece lighthouse puzzle sitting on the table. My dad had gotten it out, finished almost the whole border, and left the rest of the pieces there, and left. I have never been a puzzle person and never understood people's fascination with them. I absent mindedly started to fit pieces together the next morning while my coffee brewed. I got my coffee and decided to put in just a few more pieces. All of a sudden I looked up and four hours had passed. What just happened to my day!? At that point I was committed and finished it before I left the island. God speaks to us in weird ways and I felt God teach me a lesson through a lighthouse puzzle of all things. It blew my mind.
One individual piece of the puzzle tells me nothing about the entire picture. In my case, I knew I was making a lighthouse, just like God knows what picture He is making as he fits all of His body together. But if I didn't know what the picture looked like and I stared at one piece of the puzzle and tried to make sense of it, I would fail miserably. I would fail to see the lighthouse in the midst of a beautiful sunset. I would just see an odd shaped piece of cardboard that was dark green with a white spot at the end. Likewise if we use the analogy of one piece of the puzzle being one of us in the Body of Christ, and we look at ourselves and can't make sense of how we fit, or don't think we are making much of a difference for His kingdom, assuredly if you are one of His, you are! You just can't see the whole picture, as God can. But we also shouldn't think too highly of ourselves either because we are just like one of those odd shaped puzzle pieces that mean nothing in and of itself.
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another (Romans 12:4-5).
Furthering the analogy, I spent a lot of time piecing together that lighthouse and when it was done, the picture was beautiful. But it consisted of only one thousand pieces. Only God knows, but I am assuming the Body of Christ is much, much, much, much bigger than that. If the Body of Christ consisted of one million people, then that entire lighthouse picture itself would only be one piece of another one thousand piece puzzle. This is where my mind gets blown. Can you imagine? The lighthouse picture is only one piece, with 999 other pieces consisting of pictures of mountain ranges, deserts, children playing, the vast ocean expanse, etc, etc. Can you imagine how beautiful that must look to God? For us, to take it in would be completely overwhelming. It is as if the lighthouse picture represented a whole community of believers, which represented one piece of one thousand communities working together.
However, there are probably more than one million believers in the world. Lets say (and only God knows) that there are one billion members of the Body of Christ. Well that entire puzzle consisting of one thousand pieces of one thousand piece puzzles would only be one piece in another one thousand piece puzzle. This is the point where my mind explodes. The beauty of that must be just unbelievable, so unbelievable that no human being could ever begin to fathom it. It is as if the one thousand communities puzzle represented a nation of believers, and was only one piece of a puzzle consisting of one thousand nations working together. To recap, as a member of the Body of Christ, you are like a puzzle piece of a one thousand piece puzzle consisting of a community. That community is like a piece of a one thousand piece puzzle consisting of a nation. That nation is like a piece of a one thousand piece puzzle consisting of the entirety of the Body of Christ.
Lets imagine God taking in that beautiful picture, what do you think stands out to Him? I will tell you what would stand out to me (if I had the capacity to take all of it in): the missing pieces. I think that to Him that those missing pieces are a glaring hole in this amazing, breathtaking, beautiful picture and He is not resting until He fills the holes. He knows what the entire picture will look like in the end, but it is not complete yet. Just like finding missing puzzle pieces brings us more joy than the pieces that are already there, so it is in heaven:
What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them ´Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that is lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:3-7)
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