Puzzle Trays

 by Macy Johnson

“A time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away.”

(Ecclesiastes 3:6 NIV)

 

Life is like a puzzle tray. We come across things to do or create from our experiences, then toss them into a tray, a schedule of sorts. Once all the pieces for a project are collected, we gather them from the mental trays and form a picture, a plan to complete the task.

 

Often we have to search our minds for the best next thing. Sometimes we possessed the item already, but it slipped away. 

Jeff’s favorite, expensive clippers were lost. The last time he remembered using them was when pruning a plant in the front yard. After hours or searching, he gave up. Later in the day while raking in a flower bed, the clippers magically appeared from under a pile of leaves.

 

Some people organize puzzle pieces by color, like the Goodwill store’s layout. I like to arrange them by items in the picture: a house, the water, groups of people, etc. I used to separate pieces by the grid sections of the puzzle, allocating them evenly.

 

Puzzle trays can be like chapters of a book. I gathered information from a 2007 interview with my aunt. After tossing facts around for weeks, I decided to categorize them by person and tossed facts into unique family chapters.

 

After not playing Bridge for over a year, my friends are back together for our weekly fun time. During the pandemic, we experienced a time to give up, to let our desires go, our relationships go, but we held on to hopes of gathering again. Yesterday we played bridge in person again for the first time!

 

I will strive to put my plans into appropriate mental trays according to my heavenly Father’s perfect will. I hope you will, too!