Missing Piece to the Puzzle

We’ve all been there.  We get out the 100 or 1000 piece puzzle and the family works together to fit the pieces into place in order to match the picture on the cover of the box.  And then, you get so close to completion and find out that a piece is missing, or maybe two or five or ten.

It’s frustrating.  All of that work done to find out that you cannot complete the masterpiece before you.

Ok, so I know that God loves me.  I know that He created me as a unique individual.  But I just don’t get how He expects me to carry out His will for my life.  I mean look at me!  I’m broken.

I struggle with self-doubt constantly and I have less than $100 in my savings account.  Honestly, what can He do with me?  He’s got this elaborate design set out, but I feel like He must have left a step out.  He had to have, right?  Where is that missing piece?

This week in my A Confident Heart Online Bible study through Proverbs 31 Ministries, I decided to use one of the tools that I learned earlier in the study, Verse Mapping, and see what I could come up with from the very short and sweet scripture from this week.

[Tweet “VERSE MAP THIS: You have searched me, Lord and You know me. – Psalm 139:1 NIV”]

So I got on my Bible app (download YouVersion now!) and started perusing different translations of this verse. Many were word for word, the same, so I wrote down the ones that differed or that I found interesting.

I decided to dig a little deeper into the key verbs of this scripture and broke out the dictionary.  Take a look…

Searched…examined carefully in order to find something concealed.

Know…understand as truth and with certainty.

Wow!  In reading the different definitions of these two key verbs of the verse, a whole knew understanding developed.  First off, I’m not the only one that is searching for the missing puzzle piece. God has searched me to find what I can offer to His people and to His land.  

He has explored and examined me carefully in order to find that something that was concealed/hidden.  He uncovered my gifts and determined how best to use me to fulfill His purpose for my life.  

And knowing…He doesn’t just know me because He made me, and like I know how to make macaroni and cheese, No!  He knows me in different dimensions and places of time!

The definitions: “To have established or fixed in the mind” and “To be acquainted with by sight or experience” say that God has a knowledge of me and who I am from before I was created and delivered to this earth.  But it doesn’t stop there.

He is “able to distinguish me from another”!  He knows me as an individual, as Bree.  As the perfectly mixed up, broken soul that I am.  He knows and he can pick me out from the rest of His children.

And even further than that, He is “aware and cognizant” of my presence in the present.  Just because He created me ages ago, doesn’t mean that He has forgotten me and will only recognize me when I come to face Him in judgement.  No, He knows me right now…even as I’m sitting here typing this post.  He’s watching over me and guiding my steps.

So I searched, within this verse for the meaning behind the nine simple words.  I searched to find alternate meanings and translations and I uncovered a new understanding, a knowledge.

I know that I am talented. I know that I have gifts.  I also know that God picked these very attributes out for me, as a way for me to help Him fulfill His will and purpose of my life and as I touch the lives of others.

I also know that if I take a moment and really think about the things that drive me, that I find pleasure in and have a passion for, that I know what these gifts are, the ones that He has chosen for me.

The completed picture from the cover of the box is not exactly clear, but I can get an idea of what it looks like…if only I keep searching and don’t give up in the quest for fulfilling the image.