Someone told me about a ‘God Shaped Hole’
That mysterious missing piece in a person’s life
Only a god-shaped deity can fill
A round peg for a round hole
A square peg for a square hole
A god shape for your heart
Like a piece missing from a jigsaw puzzle
Only complete
When that last piece is in its place.
Someone told me about a man who spent 7 years
Carefully, painstakingly
Building a huge jigsaw puzzle
Thousands of days and thousands of pieces
But at the end a space, an empty place
One piece was lost
Nothing else in the world would fit
Nothing else would do, so what did they do?
A special piece, one of a kind, was created
He held it in the palm of his hand
Lingering, savouring, caressing, delighting
Then gently, reverently, positioning it
In the centre of his world, his jigsaw puzzle
In the place it had been especially designed for
A special shape, a special size for a special place
Designed for, purposed for, longed for
It completed the picture
That ‘til then was incomplete
If there is a ‘God-Shaped Hole’
There is also a ‘Me Shaped Hole’
There is a world, a life, a purpose that precedes me
That is much larger than my imagination
Designed for me
I have learned that if I go my own way
Try to fit an alternate life
Squeeze into a space not designed for me
I am lost
I have learned that if I allow myself to be taken up
Placed in the palm of God’s hand
Held in God’s heart
If I run to him as a child runs to her Father
He will embrace me and carefully place me
In the space designed for me
The full picture is then complete
I am complete
One whole life restored.
Wendy Rush
(First published as One Whole Jigsaw in ‘One Whole Life: words for the Journey’ August 2010).
The story of the man who worked for 7 years to complete a jigsaw puzzle is true. His story was published around the world in May 2010. The manufacturer had long since stopped making the puzzle, but agreed to make one special piece to fit. The jigsaw was 5 ft wide and had 5,000 pieces. It was a picture of James Tissot’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son.
