Puzzles frustrate me. I find a piece that I know should fit right here and it never does. I could enjoy putting them together if I could use a pair of scissors to modify the pieces and make them go where they should go.

Imagine working for hours to put together a huge puzzle only to find one piece missing. Now that would be doubly frustrating.

Logic would say, “It is only one piece out of a thousand. It isn’t even a central piece in the puzzle. It’s off in a corner. My picture is just fine without it.”

But it doesn’t work that way. There is no way around it, when one piece is missing, that hole becomes the most important spot. Your eye is immediately drawn to that empty space. The 999 pieces are all where they belong but that one missing piece becomes our central focus.

It is easy to see ourselves as unimportant in this world – just one tiny piece of a gigantic puzzle. What we do for God seems small, off in the shadows, not really significant. We are just one in a thousand, or a million, or 7 billion. I’ve even met folks who are doing gigantic things who still feel insignificant.

“Who’ll even notice if I don’t show up, if I don’t do my part, if I just fade into the shadows, if I stop giving, stop helping, stop sharing?”

In some ways this is a healthy attitude. Can you imagine how arrogant we would be if we felt the world couldn’t get along without us? But this attitude become unhealthy when it begins to discourage us, sap us of energy, cause us to just want to drop out, give up, stay in bed all day cause nobody notices or cares anyway.

But like the puzzle piece, you have a part to play and no one else fits into that place as beautifully as you. If you don’t suit up, show up and do your part there will be a hole. The world won’t fall apart. The picture will still come together but it will not be complete. It will not be as beautiful as the artist desired for it to be. Something will be missing, something will be undone and that missing spot will be very evident. You do make a difference. You do have a unique position to fill that God specially designed you for.

I composed a little poem to remind me that my part is important.  I can’t shirk my duty even if it seems small or insignificant. Let it remind you that you have a place in God’s plan, a spot in this huge picture He is crafting. You are significant in His plan.

My piece may seem small
in the plans of God’s heart
But the picture’s not finished
Till I do my part.

____________
Ephesians 2:10
We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.