A Puzzling Sort of Christmas

It's a Christmas tradition to get the puzzles out this time of year. We sit around the coffee table, eat popcorn, and become mesmerized by the challenge of putting together 1000 pieces of scattered chaos. In my family, the task is completed silently, all of us concentrating hard on our corner of the rectangular puzzle.

Also puzzling me now is the subtle uneasiness in my heart as Christmas approaches this year. A "funk" has fallen over me that I can't seem to shake. My family and friends keep asking, "What are you going to do after you finish your internship next year?" And to that, I cannot answer. Honestly, I have so many options and I feel so little direction right now!

But I am reminded that there is a Christmas promise I can rest on. In Matthew 1:23, Jesus is named "Emmanuel," meaning "God, with us."

Despite my uneasiness about my future, I can rest on the fact that God is most certainly with me in this season of Christmas, and this season of life. I am just a piece in a puzzle that God is putting together (Jeremiah 18:1-10). And though it may look chaotic now, there is a viewpoint from the one above who has the finished product in mind (Jeremiah 29:11, Revelation 4:11).