Gone missing!

Over the last year or so we have given our daughter jigsaw puzzles as a birthday or Christmas gift. The most recent was a jigsaw of a stunning picture of the Northern Lights which she had seen on a recent trip to Iceland and so was a reminder to her of that awe-inspiring experience. The only problem was that on completion the 1000 piece jigsaw had one piece missing! Believe it or not, the previous jigsaw we had given her also had one piece missing! Fortunately she didn’t take it personally or think we had given her second-hand or dodgy goods!
 
Look as she might to find the bit that had gone missing, was like looking for a needle in a haystack, particularly as she has two dogs that think that anything on the floor must be food, even if it’s a sock or a jigsaw piece.
 
But for her the picture was spoilt as she had planned to have it framed to hang on her wall. I don’t need to tell any jigsaw enthusiasts how incomplete the picture looks with just one part in a thousand missing, and although it’s not there, it actually becomes the most important piece. That’s why hours are spent searching and searching for the lost piece.
 
Now, you may not feel that you’re that relevant in the grand scheme of things, or you’re not even that important. That’s because you are looking at yourself through your own eyes. Do you want to know how God sees you? He has the whole picture, the whole plan, in His hands and He sees you as that precious missing piece. That’s how loved you are and that you have a special place in God’s plan. The Psalmist said, “Keep me as the apple of your eye ……” Psalm 17:8. How about that; you are the apple of God’s eye! Jesus also talks about the shepherd who goes in search of one lost sheep in Matthew 18 and Luke 15 – that’s the importance you have in His eyes. Joy abounds when that lost piece of the jigsaw is found and then can be put into its own special place. Be super encouraged this week because that is exactly how God sees you.