JESSIE’S PIECE by Mr Robert Brault

The world’s a jigsaw, once I thought,

With each of us a piece to fit,

A predetermined Grand Design

And each of us a part of it.

*

I thought that God must surely have

A blueprint of His final goal,

And all who come into this life

Are meant to play some fated role.

*

But when my little Jessie died,

It seemed to me but sheer caprice.

Where fits a child in God’s design

Who never lived to add her piece?

*

How often did I walk alone

To still the anguish in my heart,

To ask why God would make a plan

In which my child had no part.

*

One day, upon a village square,

I happened by a tiny shop.

What random step had led me there?

What in the window made me stop?

*

It was a quilt, a crazy quilt,

Each piece a brightly-colored patch,

A joyful, glowing work of art

From scraps you’d think would never match.

*

I looked upon the quilt in awe

To think a thing so oddly fine

Was stitched from fragments never made

To fit to anyone’s design.

*

I wondered then if God might wish

That in this way His world be built,

Each life a motley-colored scrap,

And He the weaver of the quilt.

*

If such be true, I realize,

My child’s life, though short it be,

Is yet a joyful, shining patch

In God’s eternal tapestry.

*

I looked upon the quilt and saw

A patch that seemed but sheer caprice,

So whimsical it made me smile.

I knew it was my Jessie's piece.