Puzzles and the Means of Grace

Fall is officially here! There are few things I enjoy more this time of year than puzzles. I love piecing together a beautiful landscape or a colorful scene. I find it relaxing yet challenging. I relish the satisfaction of tracking down that one piece I have been looking for. And I’m crushed when the final piece is AWAL. I’ve discovered what I believe to be a near-perfect combination of favorite things: comfy socks, a cup of hot coffee, and a puzzle.

My love for puzzles goes back to my childhood. My mom and I used to do them together when the weather forced us to stay inside. It was my mom who taught me proper puzzle strategy. First, you must separate the edge pieces from the middle pieces. Next, you put the outside together, so you have a boundary to work within. Then you lay out all the middle pieces and put the box away.

Mom always encouraged me to not look at the picture on the box because she thought that was cheating. I, on the other hand, called it using my resources!

Fortunately, Mom had a very different strategy when it came to life. She encouraged both her kids to return to God’s puzzle box as often as possible. Just like puzzle creators provide a guide, our Creator gave us a guidebook for life. And just like the picture helps direct my efforts when I get stuck working on a certain section of a puzzle, the Bible is the life-giving direction I so desperately need.

John Wesley called this practice “searching the Scriptures” and he further referred to it as one of the “means of grace” – the various outward signs, words, and actions that God has ordained as ordinary channels of God’s grace.[1]

Wesley so wisely encourages all who will hear, “All who desire the grace of God are to wait for it in searching the Scriptures.”[2] Jesus told us to search the Scriptures because they point to Him.

The “means of grace” – prayer, reading the Bible, taking communion – are powerful only because God has designed and determined them to be so. He has chosen to work through them. But like any channel, the means only move us when we get in the water. 

I love the idea of God’s grace as flowing through channels.

We don’t have to guess at where to find God.

We don’t have to search aimlessly for His presence.

We don’t have to blindly try to find the puzzle pieces that fit.

Thank you, God!

[1] Randy L. Maddox, Responsible Grace: John Wesley’s Practical Theology (Nashville, Tenn: Kingswood Books, 1994), 193.

[2] John Wesley, “The Sermons of John Wesley – Sermon 16 The Means of Grace,” ed. Darin Million, Wesley Center for Applied Theology, 1999, http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-16-the-means-of-grace/.