My Three-Eared Donkey Puzzle

If life were a giant jigsaw puzzle, there would be no flat surface on earth large enough on which to assemble it.  Each of has a portion of that puzzle, and none of us have all of it.  In a sense, the axiom that “all of us know more than any of us” is accurate.

As I’ve tried to arrange my portion of this life-puzzle, I’ve forced some pieces. Those pieces are slightly bent, and the gray of their edges is now noticeable as you scan the incomplete picture.

Because I love to research, I see my little puzzle as a research project.  Often I come back to the puzzle table and try to connect some new bit of information or revelation to make my puzzle more complete. (BTW, I haven’t yet found the box cover that contains the full picture that would make my life project much easier).

When I meet with others, I bring my puzzle pieces, as do they, and we drop them onto a common table.  We all have numerous individual pieces, as well as portions containing several pieces.  Then the fun begins.

Surprisingly, I find that others have had individual pieces that I’ve needed to complete portions of my puzzle.  Additionally, I have had portions of the puzzle that have easily snapped into their puzzle.  And a more complete picture of our life-puzzles begins to emerge.

Recently, I had forced a puzzle piece where it did not belong.  I had concluded that it MUST fit where I had placed (or crammed) it, but my conclusion was based on incomplete, or inaccurate information.  And because I had jammed it into where it did not belong, the correct piece would always be out of place as well.

I was building a donkey.  I was certain that it was a donkey!  It had to be a donkey; that was the conclusion that I had drawn.

Then one day as I was working on the tail, my attention was drawn to the donkey head.  I leaned in closer, and then I saw it; three ears; the piece I had crammed onto the donkey’s head appeared to give him three ears.  I removed the piece, and later discovered that, as I snapped it into place, it was the end of his tail.

Now, superimpose this concept onto God’s history-puzzle of humanity; the Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the bible.  If we have ‘done away with the front of the book, or the ‘Old Testament’, we will not have all the puzzle-pieces of the big, beautiful history-picture that He designed. We will be forced to cram our theology pieces into spaces where they do not belong, and thus create a three-eared, end-time scenario with bent edges that will deceive us every time we gaze at it. 

Clue to successful life-puzzle building:  The ‘instructions’ are in the very front of the book!