I really will get back to the salvation series soon, but this is on my mind today, so I want to post it now.
There’s a song that is currently very popular on Christian radio. It’s called “Here I Am” by Downhere, and it includes the following lyrics:
In this mess, I’m just one of the pieces,
I can’t put this together but you can.
That got me thinking about the church as a puzzle. Each member is “just one of the pieces,” and God is the maker and assembler.
I don’t know if that’s exactly the meaning intended by the singers, but it does bring about some interesting observations.
- Puzzle pieces do not get to choose where they are placed. They simply go where the assembler puts them.
- Puzzle pieces are only responsible for connecting with the few others placed directly around them.
- Puzzle pieces cannot see the big picture from their perspective. They must trust the assembler to place them properly.
- Should a puzzle piece try to correct another section of the puzzle, it would have to leave its own proper place to do so.
- A single piece out of place makes the puzzle incomplete.
But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. (1 Corinthians 12:18, NASB)
[Update: I’ve written a follow-up to this post, “More on the Church as a Puzzle.”]
That’s all I have for now. Here’s an acoustic version of the song that inspired this.
