Devotions for Kids: The Love Puzzle

Devotions for Kids is a series meant for sharing so that everyone - family and community - can spend time in God's Word together with the children in their lives and grow in faith.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Romans 13:9

Have you ever put together a jigsaw puzzle?  The cover of the box has a big picture of what all the pieces inside will look like when they are put together in the right way  Inside the box you find all the little parts.  Each puzzle piece looks a little bit different from the others with its own set of edges and cut outs, but somehow they all fit in the right places to create the picture.

In today's reading, St. Paul reminds us about some of the rules that God has for each of us.  These rules help us to be good followers because they help us make good choices by doing things like not stealing, being respectful, and being honest.  We can think of each of these rules that God has for us as puzzle pieces.  No two pieces look just the same, and if we look at only one of them it might be hard to tell what it is or how it fits into the big picture, but when all the pieces are put together, they show us how to love God.  They become our love puzzle.

When Jesus teaches the greatest commandment of loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, He also says that we should love our neighbor.  Jesus says this not because we're only supposed to love the people who live in the house next door or in our neighborhood (even though we should love them too!), but because we need to love everyone.  We should love them with the same love we show for ourselves so we can start to make our puzzle pieces come together.  It might look like this:

Because you love your little brother or sister, you won't steal their new toy.  That's the "not stealing" piece of the puzzle!

Because you love your parents or grandparents, you will listen to what they say and follow their directions.  That earns you the "being respectful" piece!

Because you love your teacher or coach, you will tell the truth when they ask you to admit when you have done something wrong in class or on the field.  That's the "being honest" piece!

All the pieces fit together in exactly the right way when we follow God's commandments, and then we can finally see the whole picture, the completed puzzle, of what it means to love God.

Let's pray:  God, I want my love puzzle for You to be complete.  I want all the pieces to be there and fit together.  Sometimes I don't make the right choices and it feels like I lost one of the pieces under the couch or inside my backpack.  Thank You for always being there to help me find the missing pieces and helping me to put them back where they belong so I can see the whole picture of love for You!  Amen.