The New Year’s Puzzle
It is New Year’s Eve in Texas and simultaneously New Year on the globe, depending on where you are right now. Either way, I will start by wishing a global Happy New Year to all!
But with the New Year here (or just about) comes the New Year’s Puzzle. And to present it and give you my view, I will need to tell you how it all came about with a true story:
Nearly a week before Christmas, we were shopping and spotted a beautiful holiday winter scene on the lid of a square tin can:
In the foreground, a red vintage truck, decorated with
evergreen garlands, wreaths, pinecones, ornaments, berries, bells, and ribbons.
On the truck bed, bound by festive red rope, leaned a Christmas tree, sharing
the space with four adorable dogs and beautifully wrapped gift boxes amidst hay
bales. Out the driver’s window, another dog almost jumped out at the bright-white
winter wonderland, seemingly sniffing and licking the falling snowflakes that
dangled in their descent.
In the background was a cardinal, clothed in its
red-cardinal feathery robe, perched on the rustic wooden fence, near the gate.
To the left, behind the fence, red silos, barns, and a farm tractor lay dormant
on that holiday. To the right, a plump snowman smiled by the staircase leading
to the farmhouse’s front porch. The red door, ornamented with a festive wreath,
invited a knuckle-knock (or a doorbell ring). Emanating from the windowpanes, a
golden glow spelled W-A-R-M. And behind it all, snow-capped peaks and tall
pines against a pink-and-lilac sky.
My-oh-my! That was it: we grabbed the tin box and brought
it home. That evening, we were delighted to find, along with the 300-piece puzzle,
shortbread cookies (perfect to munch with coffee or hot chocolate, though Santa
might beg to differ and dip them in milk)!
That was not all, of course: next, we tried to figure out
the puzzle. Looking often and attentively at the lid, we started by finding and
grouping the pieces by their side edges, similar colors, and by whether they
seemed to form each object or animal in the picture.
At times, we were so puzzled (pun intended!) that we were
almost certain we had misplaced or lost a few pieces. Then, as expected, we felt
tempted to blame the puzzle maker for those ‘missing pieces’ we somehow could
not find. We would even walk away in frustration, only to come right back and
give it another try. Sometimes we realized some pieces had been stubbornly
placed in the wrong spot and did not go together just because we wanted them
to: we had to remove them and try to fit them somewhere else…
After a few days, the dogs’ faces, the snowman, the
cardinal, the mountains, all began to go together, and VOILÀ! We were done! It
was complete!
If you are still reading this, congratulations: you are a Reader
who truly loves to read and are puzzled by my puzzling story!
And I know you might be still asking: What does this puzzle
have to do with the New Year?
Well, “the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind” (those
who love music from the seventies would know what I am talking about!) …
But I digress. Okay, here go my thoughts:
Most people are now looking into the New Year and thinking
about a new beginning, a fresh start! I know I am too. And yes, the New Year is
that moment of reflection and hope for yet another chance to say goodbye to the
old and hello to the new.
The problem, though, is that each one of us has a puzzle to
put together.
The first step is to have a picture of what we wish to do
and be. To have a tin lid to look at in our thoughts and imagination. The second
step is to sometimes realize that we cannot put the puzzle together because the
pieces somehow don’t fit or are lost.
You see, the picture we crave to build is not what we
imagined. Yet, we stubbornly insist on denying the reality of what is right in
front of us.
In the puzzle of life, the hardest thing to realize is that
the picture is not perfect, and the puzzle will never be complete. We might
either blame ourselves, others, or the puzzle maker for the missing or lost pieces.
We might walk away from it all, only to come back and try again. In vain.
Thus, if you are puzzled to find a balance between what is
and what might be, I will show you what I have just learned from this 300-piece,
picture-perfect puzzle:
First, take a deep breath. If the weather permits, go
outside for a walk. A beach, river, mountain, or park would be just fine.
When you get there, take another deep breath, start walking,
and look around. What do you see? What is in the foreground? What is in the background?
Are there any trees, flowers, mountains,
waves, animals, people? Is it cold, hot, breezy, sunny? What is the sky like?
Are there clouds, stars, birds, airplanes?
Just observe. Feel. You are there, at the center of a
360-degree picture. Take in that moving picture all around you and capture it with
the lenses or your senses! See it. Hear it. Feel it.
I hope this experience brings a deep sigh to your heart in
the New Year and makes you ponder and wonder: “What is the BIGGER PICTURE?”
You see, there is another puzzle to complete that is just so
incomparably BIGGER and more profound than we can imagine!
A puzzle that will be more moving and encompassing as that
walk I just suggested you take.
A puzzle that will only be revealed beyond this life by the
BIG PUZZLE MAKER.
It will be picture-perfect! It will never end!
You just must have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. And
if you do find it, you will have a new beginning, a fresh start, amidst a deep
sigh of hope and peace…
And you will have A TRULY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
2 Corinthians 4:17
For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us
an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
Revelation 21:4
‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there
will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have
passed away.”
John 14:2
In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so,
would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet
not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to
nought: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes
of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared
for them that love him.
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the
Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things
of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches;
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit
of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judges all things,
yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord,
that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
