The Master Puzzler: Why Didn’t Humpty Go to the King?

A few days ago, I had a vision of puzzle pieces scattered all around.

As I thought about those pieces, I realized something: Jesus is the Master Puzzler. He takes the pieces of our lives and puts them together. He is so crafty and careful with all of our scattered pieces.

Then Humpty Dumpty came to mind:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.

I know it’s a nursery rhyme. But my brain works like that. And I’m learning that’s not a flaw: I “search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2). So I searched this one out, line by line, and I believe I received revelation in connection with a believer’s walk.

Humpty sat on a wall

Start with the first line. Why was Humpty up there?

This needed to be studied! 😄

Have you ever thought about that?

The rhyme never says how he got up there. Did he climb? Or was he put there?

Sometimes we climb up on our own. Sometimes we’re set there by circumstances, by other people, by seasons we never chose. Even Jesus was “set” on a pinnacle (Matthew 4:5). What matters is what we do once we’re up there.

A wall can represent two things.

1. A place to sit, not a place to stand. It’s a place of decision.

2. A divider. It marks two sides, and Humpty sat right on the line between them.

Elijah asked Israel, “How long halt ye between two opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21). Joel saw multitudes “in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14). Joshua told the people, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 24:15).

Many of us have sat on that wall. We aren’t far from God, and we aren’t all in. We’re watching, weighing, waiting. It feels safe because we haven’t fallen yet. But nothing is holding us up there. “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8), and Jesus said of the lukewarm, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

Humpty had a great fall

Maybe the wall caused the fall.

However he got up there, Humpty stayed in the place of decision long enough that gravity made the choice for him. Indecision feels safe, but it isn’t neutral. When we won’t choose a side, a wall will eventually choose for us.

“Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). Humpty probably thought he was fine up there. Maybe we thought so too. Maybe pride told us we could balance there on our own: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Or maybe we slowly wandered from the path of righteousness we once walked, and didn’t notice until we were falling. And sometimes a hard season simply shakes us loose, through no fault of our own.

However it happened, the fall is real. And we end up in pieces on the ground, not sure how it all went wrong.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Notice who showed up: horses and men. Plenty of help, and none of it enough. They could gather the pieces, but they couldn’t make him whole.

We do the same. We run to people, plans, and quick fixes, hoping someone can put us back together. Some of that help is good. But it can’t do what only the Maker can do.

And this is where I see Humpty’s real problem: he never went to the King. Why didn’t he just go, or call out to the King?

The King doesn’t discard broken things

“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart” (Psalm 34:18). “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). In Jeremiah 18, the clay was marred in the potter’s hand, “so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”

The rhyme ends with Humpty in pieces. But the King’s promise doesn’t end there: He gives “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:3).

Some of those pieces are ones we’d never have chosen. Maybe you walked away from what you thought was your dream job. You prayed, you tried, and it still wouldn’t work out. It felt like another piece lost. Then, months or years later, you see it: that wasn’t the end, it was a redirection. “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

That’s grace. Grace is God’s freely given kindness and help, and also His enabling power to do what He calls us to do. Through every piece, it is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Every season becomes a thread in a quilt, a line in a story we didn’t know was being written. The hard times, the disappointments, and especially the times we felt lost: none of it was wasted. God was training us for the next assignment, because “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Go to the King

The wall, the fall, the pieces, and the help that wasn’t enough all point to one question: who do we go to?

The King has already given the invitation: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3). Humpty never called. We can.

The wall doesn’t have to be where we stay. Christ “hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Ephesians 2:14), and “by my God have I leaped over a wall” (Psalm 18:29). We can cross to His side.

“A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again” (Proverbs 24:16). “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand” (Psalm 37:24). The difference isn’t that the righteous never fall. It’s that they know where to go when they do.

We don’t have to know how every piece fits. We can bring Him all of them: the ones that made sense, the ones that hurt, the ones we thought were just our own failures.

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Humpty never made it to the King. We can.

He is so crafty and careful with all of our scattered pieces.

A moment to reflect

Where are you sitting right now: on the wall, in the fall, in the pieces, or reflecting on how God took all of your scattered pieces and put you back together?

He is the Master Puzzler, an all wise God, and the One who can restore every broken piece and our soul.