“Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.” Matthew 19:21-22 NASB
Working on a jigsaw puzzle on your own or with friends and family is an enjoyable and relaxing way of putting away the cares of the world for a period of time. All the pieces eventually fit together completing the work and revealing the final product. The rewards are not only the finished product, but what was accomplished along the way. How many times have you got near the end of working your puzzle and realized you do not have all the pieces to complete it, in fact you’re missing only one piece. The last piece making it complete.
Our lives are like a giant jigsaw puzzle with the pieces falling into place throughout the years. For many of us there is a sense of urgency to feel complete in our lives. Despite what successes we may have there is this feeling that there is a piece missing making us incomplete. This feeling is two-fold, first of all we are created in the image of God, and whether we admit it or not, there is a longing to be united with our creator, and second we are created as spiritual beings with an eternal soul, meaning after this life is over we live on, and how can we know where that will be. For our lives to be complete in this life and the next, we need the missing last piece of the puzzle.
The gospel of Matthew records the story of a rich young ruler who asks Jesus what good thing he can do to obtain eternal life. He was looking for the missing piece. Having kept all the commandments so he thought, there must be something missing, he felt incomplete. Jesus wastes no time in answering him, telling him to sell all that he has, give the proceeds to the poor, and then follow Him. The young ruler was devastated by Jesus’s answer. His yearning to find the missing piece to his feeling of emptiness was put aside in place of his present day wealth.
Jesus’s instructions are clear, both to the rich young ruler and to us today. The thought is, there must be something else we can do to please the Lord and earn our Salvation. We are good people. We obey most of the ten commandants, and are kind to our neighbors, but we still feel incomplete. What is the missing last piece of the puzzle? It is Christ alone, accepting Him as our Savior and loving Him more than all our earthly possessions. Have you found your missing last piece of the puzzle? Read the story of The Rich Young Ruler: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+19%3A16-22&version=NASB1995
Word for the Soul 