Keeping Christmas - Dec. 21 Puzzled

I love how God can choose to speak to us through everyday normal things.

This afternoon we finished our 1000 piece puzzle, only to discover that three of the pieces disintegrated into the mist before we finished it the first time. I think they didn't make the move from our first room to the second even though I was careful to crawl around on the floor and look under the radiator.

This is what most see.

This is what I see.

 

Perhaps because it is in my DNA to FINISH well, I find this more annoying than it actually should be. We completed all that we could do...we finished the 997 pieces that we had.

99.7 % is an A+

And yet the holes and unfinished-ness bother me.

 

I can't even blame it on anyone. My parents were very encouraging of everything I did. I never felt pressure from them to do better or be more. I think I just came that way, and Jesus is teaching me how to deal with the holes in my expectations, circumstances, and performances. The funny thing (or genetic joke) is that I seem to have five kids and a husband who think this way too. I hope I can learn the lesson of centered contentment that Paul wrote about in Philippians soon, so that I can help my loved ones figure this out as well.

I find myself in brain-whirring overdrive when it is time to sleep. It's mostly a jet-lag time-zone thing, and staying up too late reading books on vacation, but now that I have finished all my books, I lay down to sleep and then get up, turn on the lights, and start making lists. Lists of details for Christmas, for the birthdays, for the new year, for the new school year, for the groceries we've run out of, for my exercise class that has been on the back burner since summer of 2011.

I am wondering if I will feel at rest when this leg of the journey is finished or if I will start chomping at the bit for the next thing. (Please, God. May it be rest and not restlessness.) For those of you who pray for us, this is my next request. Quietly regrouping in January.

Jesus, You are the Alpha and the Omega.

The beginning and the end.

He who began a good work (in our family) will be faithful to COMPLETE it.

Philippians 1:6

Perhaps You hold those missing pieces in your pocket so that I learn to delight in You, and not in pridefully finishing the tasks and challenges You allow us. You are the Finisher and I will trust You.