As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” …. Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mark 10:17, 21

When you buy a thousand piece puzzle at a yard sale, do you count the pieces before you pay?

Imagine that all your life is a picture on a jigsaw puzzle and when it is completed it will be suitable to hang in your heavenly mansion. Each piece represents a period or event in your life. Some are more difficult than others to put together, but when each one is in its place, you have a beautiful picture of your life’s journey.

What would happen if you got all the pieces together and discovered that one was missing right in the center of the puzzle? No matter how beautiful the picture, it would be incomplete and ruined.

We can have all our life together. Everything can be picture perfect, yet we are lost without Christ. Such a person came to Jesus. He was questioning where he could find that piece that would make his life complete. Jesus said, “You lack one thing…sell…give…follow Me.” The young man left him sad and incomplete because to follow Jesus he had to let go of other things that he loved also.

What will we give in exchange for that one piece that completes our life, the One in the middle of it all that holds everything else together, and gives it glory? “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.”

“My soul is satisfied, my soul is satisfied; I am complete in Jesus’ love, and my soul is satisfied.”