A puzzling time

I get why this has become a national craze.  A recent report states that jigsaw puzzles sales are up 370% during this time of sheltering.  My wife and I, previously not ones for puzzles, are spending many after-hour moments exulting over each placed piece.

Yes, it’s a time-filler.  But there’s something much deeper going on.

A character in a movie we watched last week – in the film, he competes in puzzle competitions – explained the significance of the activity.  “Life is just a chaos,” he said.  “But when you complete a puzzle, you know you have made all the right choices.  And the pieces come together for a beautiful picture.”

I know what he means.  It’s deeply satisfying, particularly in a time of great unknowns, to have a small environment where everything makes sense.  Where everything fits.

We are in one of those times.

So were the original hearers of Isaiah’s preaching.  Facing an immediate future of turmoil and societal breakdown, they must have wondered how to make sense out of it all.  That’s why God breaks in with verses like this:

The oppressor will come to an end,
    and destruction will cease;
    the aggressor will vanish from the land.
In love a throne will be established;
    in faithfulness a man will sit on it—
    one from the house of David—
one who in judging seeks justice
    and speeds the cause of righteousness.  (Isaiah 16:4-5)

This is a needed glimpse at the picture on the box lid.  The current chaos is temporary.  But the everlasting king is coming.  Notice that his rule will be established in love.  God’s love here is the word hesed – “the Lord’s covenanted (therefore unchanging) commitment to his people, his steadfastness, unmoved by changing times or experiences, undeviating even when they prove faithless.” (Motyer)

On this day between the death and resurrection of Jesus, his disciples needed such a peek at the big picture.  Not only had their vision of the coming king been dashed, they had their own faithlessness to wrestle with.

But what was true in Isaiah’s time was true for them and is true for us.

In love a throne will be established.

Only, because of Easter, that throne has been established.  Death conquered.  Sin paid for.  Faithless followers redeemed.

The pieces really do all fit.

Father, we struggle to find purpose in this time of seeming chaos.  We turn to you for the box lid for this puzzle, and we find your resurrected Son.  Thank you for your love, which established his throne and purchased our salvation.

Reader:  Are you a jigsaw puzzler?  If so, why do you think you enjoy it so much?