Puzzles

Every day, several times a day, when I am working at Unity Hospital as a Chaplain (part of the Clinical Pastoral Education program I am a part of), I walk through the Intensive Care Unit and its family waiting area. In the family waiting area is a large, 1000 piece puzzle, spread out on a round table...the kind that you could fit 3-4 people around comfortably.

In the 6 weeks that I've been walking through the area, I have seen this puzzle put together, pulled apart, put back together and pulled back apart...time and time again. I just walked through the area again about 15 minutes ago. There it was, probably 40% assembled. Tonight by the time I leave at 6pm, it might be 60% assembled. Tomorrow night, perhaps 20%.

People sit and assemble the puzzle. Then they are called in to their loved ones room. A few minutes later another patient's loved ones might sit down and put some pieces together. The first family walks back out and looks at what the second family has done. They talk. They laugh a little bit. They wonder when all is said and done, how many pieces might be missing from the final product. A small, weird sense of community forms around the puzzle.

They look at the puzzle and wonder who is sitting at home now, unaware that a medical crisis might erupt that will draw them to the ICU. These unknowing people might be working on the puzzle tomorrow...or the next day...

The puzzle becomes a metaphor for their situation. Broken. Confused. In the midst of a long process. Difficult. A challenge to patience. Waiting to be made whole.

It's interesting that when people sit down at the puzzle, they do so with a significant amount of energy. They really focus on finding the next piece. I've had whole conversations with people who barely look up at me. It's almost as if by force of will, they can make the puzzle whole, and by force of will, they can make their loved ones healthy.

The puzzle is a metaphor for all of us really. Broken. Confused. In themidst of a long process. Difficult. A challenge to patience. Waiting to be made whole.

Perhaps not medically, but broken nonetheless.

It is not force of will that will heal us however. We have tried that far too many times. What heals us comes only from God. It is grace that we depend on. It is grace that makes us whole. We have to remember that though we are participants in the restoration of the puzzle that is ourselves, it is God, the author of the puzzle, who can actually put us back together again.

Puzzles. We are puzzles. Broken. Waiting. God, piece us together again.