Puzzling!

Happy New Year!

On the first day of 2025, my family put together a new puzzle. This was an official “family” puzzle. It was designed had with small, medium and large pieces available so that young children to adults would be able to participate in the fun of piecing together the puzzle. The puzzle itself wasn’t too large, with a total of 400 pieces.

When I was a kid, I loved putting together puzzles all by myself. Sometimes, a family member would stop by and try to place a few pieces of my puzzle together and inside I heard a voice saying, “Don’t let them touch my puzzle! I want to do this all by myself.” It was a kind of an ego trip thing, to have the ability to say, “See, World! I am the greatest! I did this puzzle all by myself! I didn’t need anyone’s help!” But, as I have matured, putting together a family puzzle brings me more satisfaction. There is a feeling of community when our entire family comes together with a common goal of completing a task set before us. The comradery builds as we tackle the problem, and we each are contributing in our own way to completing the goal of finding and placing the pieces together in a tapestry of color that allows us to make sense of the picture of the original puzzle. And when we have completed the task, there is a sense of accomplishment that together, we solved and conquered the task at hand. It enhances the feeling of community — the feeling of belonging.

During New Year’s Day, as I was working on the new family puzzle, I reflected on community and what it all means to me. To be honest, in my Christian walk, about ten years ago I really didn’t place too much thought or emphasis on community. I thought the Christian life was really meant to be lived out alone, just me and God. I would say to myself, “I can handle this all by myself,” or so I thought. Fast forward ten years from then, and who would have imagined that I would be starting my third year as a small group leader in my church with an emphasis on living the Christian life as a community. Kind of a puzzling thought to say the least! I don’t lead this group as a means to feed some my ego but more as a way to say to my group. “I don’t have all the answers in this life. I really could use your input on these challenges in my life. What are your thoughts?” And my group responds and says, “Hey, I got your back!” and the feeling of comradery surfaces, and I have a place where I belong. That’s why I am of proponent of community.

This year is a new year. If you haven’t considered the benefits of community in regards to your Christian walk, I would highly recommend that you find a group that you are comfortable with, which in and of itself is a risk, and get plugged into community to find the presence of the One True God in even a deeper and more satisfying way.

God bless you in the new year!