One Piece in a Puzzle

Back in 1980 I was serving as a volunteer at my church where I provided a Sunday morning children’s message every other week. I did that for 15 years.

One of my messages focused on the importance of each of them as a child of God and that He had a special purpose for them.

I demonstrated that by dramatically dumping a one thousand piece puzzle on the floor in front of them and immediately instructed them that they had 5 minutes to put it together. What was amazing to me is that many of them jumped to it and began the task of piecing it.  Most of the children (however) just sat there with their mouths open appearing somewhat paralyzed. It was a cute scene actually — kind of lifelike if you know what I mean.

One of the children hollered out to me, “it would help if we knew what it’s supposed to look like when it’s done.”  The congregation laughed.

I picked up one of the puzzle pieces and asked them if they could complete the puzzle if I separated it from the rest and put it in my pocket?

One of the children innocently said, “but we wouldn’t have a complete picture if one of the pieces were missing.”  Then I read/sang them the poem I wrote for the occasion, titled “One Piece in a Puzzle.”