THE MISSING PIECE OF THE PUZZLE

“When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His commands, because this [is for] all humanity.  For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 HCSB)
 

Do you like to work puzzles?  I don’t.  I’ve told several puzzle-lovers that you can buy those pictures already put together and save a lot of time.  Patience isn’t my strongest point, which I’m sure surprises those who know me well (insert sarcastic tone in second half of this sentence).  How terrible it would be to spend hours putting a puzzle together and then find at the end there is a missing piece!  Now, there is a puzzle-worker’s nightmare!

Life can be a puzzle.  Solomon tried to put it together and found the key piece missing.  It left him frustrated, made him cynical and turned him bitter.  Reading Ecclesiastes is like walking into a psychiatrist’s office and listening to patient after patient dump loads of despair.  Do psychiatrists ever get depressed?  I don’t see how they could help it.

People can’t seem to put the puzzle together.  There is a piece missing that mars the whole thing—a glaring hole that turns your attention away from the rest of the picture and like a huge mouth screams, “Look at me!  Here is a hole!”

Can you imagine the excitement someone feels if they find that missing piece?  Eureka!

Solomon did!  There was the “eureka” moment!  A vital relationship with God is the missing piece that fills the hole in our soul’s puzzle.

We sometimes sing a song at the climax of our worship service, when we make an appeal for people to receive Christ.  It is called “Without Him.”  It speaks of the missing piece of life’s puzzle.

“Without Him I could do nothing
Without Him I'd surely fail
Without Him I would be drifting
Like a ship without a sail

(Chorus) Jesus, O Jesus
Do you know Him today
Do not turn Him away
O Jesus, O Jesus
Without Him, how lost I would be!

(Vs2) Without Him I could be dying
Without Him I'd be enslaved
Without Him life would be hopeless
But with Jesus, Thank God
I'm saved!

(Chorus) Jesus, O Jesus
Do you know Him today
Do not turn Him away
O Jesus, O Jesus
Without Him, how lost I would be!”

It was written by Mylon Rae Le Fevre, and recorded by none other than Elvis Presley in 1963.  Imagine, the “King of Rock and Roll” singing of the missing piece of life’s puzzle—even as he lived out King Solomon’s story.

Elvis too had great success—fortune and fame.  His humble beginnings and exposure to the things of God launched him into life.  But, like Solomon, he too began to stray and meander into many experiences without meaning.  In the end, his distress led to his demise—not a happy man, but a haunted man.  Elvis illustrates the missing piece of the puzzle.  Did he find that piece before the tragic end?  I do not know.  I cannot judge.  That is God’s prerogative.

What I do know is this: God without man is still God, but man without God is nothing.  Before you come to the end of life, you must prepare to meet your Maker.  You are always just one heartbeat away from eternity.  The next breath you take could be your last.

When we look at old King Solomon, after his straying from God’s path for years, we are thankful in the end he came back home to God.  Better late than never!

That’s for sure, but he writes this book to stress, “Better early than late.”  There was much done that could not be undone.  There were many scars he would carry to his grave.  Listen to his plea:

“So remember your Creator in the days of your youth: Before the days of adversity come, and the years approach when you will say, ‘I have no delight in them’” (Eccl.12:1)  The sooner you find the missing piece of life’s puzzle and insert it, the longer you can enjoy the picture and display it for others.

Delay can be deadly.  If you die before filling that hole, and your body is placed in a hole, you will spend eternity in a bottomless hole where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; a thirst in your soul that can never be satisfied; a constant awareness of the missing piece forever beyond your grasp.

Listen to the old Preacher, Solomon—reach out and fill that empty place today!