I love the way Saint Paul so brilliantly compares Christians to members of the body in 1 Corinthians 12.  We are all one in Christ!  I may be just an elbow, but I matter all the same.

            Today I’m thinking we’re also like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.  It takes all 100 pieces to complete The Big Picture.

            Or all 2,000 pieces.    

            My husband and I are working obsessively on a 2,000 piece puzzle. Last night it held us captive well past 10 before we were finally able to break free (actually, Don would have stayed with it even longer had I not dragged him up the stairs).

            This puzzle is taking over our lives almost as much as it has taken over the dining room! Pieces of it are scattered all over the table, the chairs, the floor.

            Now whereas the man of the house likes to pick out a piece and, using the picture on the box cover as a reference, try to figure out where that one particular piece goes, the woman (me!) prefers to look through groups of pieces and find two or three of similar shading that look like they might fit together. (I think it’s obvious which is the superior way of going about it.) Our younger daughter wanders into the dining room every now and again to instantly find one of the more elusive pieces that Don and I had all but given up on.

          Let me tell you, there is more rejoicing around the table over that one stubborn little puzzle piece that we thought was lost but has suddenly been found than about all of the other pieces!

            As you have probably gathered, I just can’t help but (over)analyze everything in life, including jigsaw puzzles.  So as I’m fitting pieces together (in my superior fashion), I’m thinking how interesting it is that…

• Each puzzle piece is unique, even in a group of 2,000, and yet each unique piece was cut out for the specific purpose of fitting back together again.
• The uniqueness of each piece is of primary importance only so long as it’s being found, after that what matters is how its individuality fits into the puzzle as a whole.
• You’ve got to keep the big picture in mind if you’re going to figure out how the little pieces fit together.
• Every piece matters.  If just one piece is missing, the picture is incomplete.
• The maker of the big picture won’t quit until it is complete.

            I could go on and on, but there’s a 5,000 piece puzzle waiting once this one is finished, so I guess it’s back to the dining room.  If you don’t hear from me next week, send help!