Brick by Brick

Recently I got given an old Lego set. Before I continue, yes, I am aware that this is the second time in three months that I’m writing about Lego, which may make me look childish, but I’m okay with that. I was very excited to receive this Lego set (I know this isn’t help me look any less juvenile), but the thing about old Lego sets, is that you never really know if all the pieces are there. It was quite a big set with lots of pieces and instructions, so much so that the person who gave it to me had painstakingly separated the pieces into four bags to coincide with each of the four instruction booklets. Yet even so, with no judgement on the previous owner, there was still no guarantee that pieces wouldn’t be missing – it’s very easy to lose a few pieces over time and through transit. The thing is, with it being such a big set it was even easier to mislay a few pieces and not notice and putting it together would take quite an investment of time, it would be awful to invest all that time to get halfway through only to be unable to finish it because I didn’t have all the required parts.

This concern sat hidden away in the back of my mind, but it was never going to dampen my enthusiasm for building a new Lego set and so I dug in. Even with the pieces separated into 4 bags, there were still a huge amount of pieces in each bag and so finding the required piece for each step took some time. After not too long I got to a piece that I just couldn’t find. After an initial search, I methodically sifted through all of the pieces three times, but alas, it was not there.  Disappointed, but not so easily thwarted, I managed to find a similar piece in my collection and so I used that instead. A short while later and it happened again. This time I couldn’t find a piece amongst my collection which was the same, but I cobbled together something which would sort of do. Disappointed that the finished set wouldn’t quite be all it was supposed to be, I carried on. Then it happened again. Getting frustrated I looked through the pile of pieces one more time and something strange happened. I didn’t find the piece I was looking for, but I did find the very first piece I was missing. It was now however, not a simple case of swapping out the “almost correct” piece I had taken from my collection with the newfound “actually correct” piece because the piece in question was covered by sever layers of Lego bricks.

So, I carefully took away as few bricks as possible and deftly performed the swap like a skilled surgeon. As I reassembled what I had taken apart I noticed something familiar; the second missing piece! I suddenly realised that I must have erroneously used this piece in an early step instead of a very similar but significantly different piece! And so, I swapped those over too. Now I was only one piece missing, but one piece missing I was. I tried again but couldn’t find it so once again I used something close but not quite right. Many steps later I would find the right piece and have to go back to swap it out. This cycle of not being able to find a piece, using the wrong piece, then several steps later finding the right piece, and having to undo what I’d done before finally placing the correct piece, was one which would be repeated several times before the build was completed. What was interesting was that for each time I belatedly found a piece I had earlier given up on finding, I would search that little bit longer next time I couldn’t find a piece. That was because each time my doubt that the pieces were there was proven wrong, the more my trust in the person who provided the pieces grew. And in the end, they were proven completely trustworthy as all of the pieces were there.

I couldn’t help thinking about the parallels between following the instructions to turn the Lego pieces I’d been given into a completed set, and the way God guides me to put the various pieces of my life together to create something which glorifies Him, a life which is all that it is supposed to be. And sometimes in life it can feel like you haven’t been given all of the pieces you need. In those times it can be tempting to trying to make other pieces fit the gaps, but they never quite work right, not as they were designed to, and in the end if you want to get it right you have to take things apart to build them back up again properly. When the pieces don’t seem to be there in life, sometimes we just have to look a bit harder, other times we need to take a second look at the instructions, still other times we need to wait for His timing to bring all the pieces together. Whatever is going on, one thing is for sure, He who made the design will bring you all of the pieces.