Putting the Family Back Together!

 

We received a unique gift from our son-in-law and daughter at Christmas: a 1,014-piece puzzle! What made this puzzle special was that it was made from a photo of their whole family—one of those shots where the six of them crunched close together and Chris who was the person with the longest arms held out his cell phone as far as he could reach for a group “selfie.”

Then the picture was probably sent to a company which specializes in making personalized items from pictures—books, mugs, mouse pads, puzzles and more! Once enlarged, it was copied onto a large cardboard rectangle with the desired dimensions and then cut into hundreds of small pieces, each with dimensions about an inch or less. For commercial puzzles, a cutting die is most commonly used; but other methods can also work, like using the jigsaw…and that is why they are called “jigsaw puzzles!”

Before we even started to work on the puzzle, Al and I had to decide where to put it. Our kids were nice enough to let us borrow an old dining room table with folding legs. Bigger than a card table, it held all of the pieces fairly well.

I decided that the best time to tackle it would be while watching TV in the evenings. So, we moved the coffee table in front of the sofa and set up the borrowed one in its place. That way, the puzzle could be reached while sitting on the sofa facing the television. The couch turned out to be lower than the table though, necessitating using a cushion to raise us up a little.

Finally, the time came when the plastic bag was opened and all of the pieces piled onto the table. Together we turned each one over, looking for those with one or two straight edges first. The selfie photo on the box helped us to figure out where the edges and corner pieces belonged; however, it still took several days before the entire outside frame of the puzzle was connected.

Once that was done, we realized that it was smaller than expected, just a little over two feet long and a few inches under two feet wide. However, there were still multitudes of pieces to put in place. At that point, the idea of figuring out how they fit together seemed pretty overwhelming.

Every evening a little progress was made, depending on how long the TV stayed on and what other projects still needed to be finished! Thank goodness our daughter, Shanda, was wearing a bright pink shirt in the picture. Her shirt was a good starting point because those pieces were easy to identify among the greens of the shrubs in the background, the light pinks and tans of skin tone, the yellows and browns of hair and many shades of blue of the other five t-shirts.

It has been a slow process with still a very long way to go. But, little by little the original picture has started emerging… the top of Elliot’s head (our youngest grandchild), the blue and red tank top worn by his brother, one side of our son-in-law’s face and their family van parked along the curb in the background.

Finding a single missing piece to complete a portion of the picture often requires a careful search, many times unsuccessful due to its being camouflaged among those scattered across the table. Then there is always the worry of a piece falling onto the carpet under the table, where our lab has decided to sleep and could easily devour it for a nice evening snack!

This huge endeavor has reminded me of the painstaking process of healing broken relationships within our families. Most of us have experienced hurt feelings at one point or another from those who are closest to us, the pain that sometimes results from miscommunication, unkind words or criticism.

These problems are not easy to resolve; however, with the honest confession of our mistakes to God and to each other, the asking and extending of forgiveness and with the passing of time, broken relationships can be made whole again.

May the Lord help us become peacemakers in our families. Never ever give up trying!

 

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32 NIV