Joshua’s House

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Does anyone in your family like putting puzzles together? I know when I was a kid we would often have a card table set up in the living room with a puzzle that someone was working on. Here is a way to add some extra fun to your puzzle experience while pointing your children to God as well.

All you need is a puzzle, some paper and a pen or pencil, and a little bit of creativity. Before your kids begin working on the puzzle, take a few pieces from the box (make sure you don’t take any edge pieces, or they’ll get suspicious). Hide these pieces around the house with clues about where the next piece is hidden. By the time they are done they will have their puzzle complete and will connect the object in the puzzle to Heavenly things. Here is an example.

This puzzle has 48 pieces so you would probably only want to hide four pieces. Here are some of the clues you could have. You would give your child(ren) the first clue upon their discovery of missing pieces.

1. People used to use horses for transportation. Now we use something different. Go to our modern-day “horse” for your first puzzle piece and clue. (The first piece would be on/in/around the car.)

2. Horses are powerful and strong. They can carry 1/3 of their own body weight! How much do you weigh? Go see to find your next puzzle piece. Do you think you could carry 1/3 of your weight? (The next piece would be on bathroom scales or something of the sort.)

3. Because of the power and strength of horses, they were often used to carry weapons into battle. In fact, Pharaoh’s army and many others relied heavily on their horses. The more horses they had the more confidant they were of wining the battle. God had something different to say though. Find out what He has to say in Psalm 33:17. (The next piece would be hidden in a family Bible at Psalm 33:17).

4. God said that the strength of horses is not the way of deliverance. Turn to Psalm 20:7. (Have a verse card tucked away in the right place in the Bible with this written on it or write it on the back of the puzzle piece: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” Psalm 20:7.) Attach this card to your completed puzzle so that you can always remember that we can place our trust in our God.

You can do this with just about any puzzle. The puzzle here and a few more are in the Joshua’s House bookstore. Share your clue ideas with us, and let us know if you need help coming up with some clues for whatever puzzle you’re working on.