Change {puzzle date continued..}

Change is the law of life.
-John F. Kennedy

Do you want to work on the puzzle tonight?

The Thanksgiving holiday is coming to a close as we sit together on a Saturday night, finishing our puzzle; the puzzle that taught me that sometimes things need to be broken. 

I laugh thinking that just two weeks ago I would have rather run a marathon, or eaten liver, than sit and do a puzzle. But now I jump up gladly, ready for the conversation and connection that will happen as we pick up the pieces. 

We are on the final leg of the puzzle, past the hard part--where it was just a picture of blue sky and trees-- nothing to differentiate one puzzle piece from the next. 

We both reach for the last two pieces and pop them into place. 

It is finished. 

I survey our work proudly and sigh. What now? My husband looks at me and suggests we take it apart, he's ready for the next one.

I reel. 

Take it apart? When we just finished putting it together? I couldn't imagine why we would destroy something we'd work so hard to build.

I like to figure things out, and keep things together. I like clean cut answers. And I hate change. 

Once I have things figured out I want them to stay that way---stable, constant, predictable. Easy. 

I'm pondering this as we begin to demolish the puzzle and place it back in it's box, when I hear that familiar voice...

Life is change. 

Life requires growth and I guess, growth is a form of change. If something isn't growing and changing, I'm no scientist, but I'm guessing then it's not alive. I think of all the change that we've seen this year--some of it painful, hard, and not-so-black-and-white.

This life business, it's messier than I want it to be. Just when I think I have it figured out, it's time to dismantle the old and start a new puzzle.  And maybe the illusion is that I really had anything figured out in the first place. 

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding.

Piece by piece we put the puzzle away, and talk about change. It's in the air, and we talk about what that means for us. For me, it means putting away the belief that change is scary, and that I really had anything figured out in the first place. It means being brave and trusting God, being willing to break the old to get to the new. 

Sometimes things need to be shaken up and torn down, not because they were bad or wrong, but to make way for new life, in all it's messy-grey goodness.

I put the last piece in the box and close it up and smile. Ready for the next one? He asks. 

Yes, I nod firmly, I think I am.