Sunday, June 8, 2014

Jigsaw Puzzle of Life

Life can be seen as a story, a mosaic ... and a jigsaw puzzle. When I was a teenager, I saw my future life as an adventure novel - what would happen next?! Later on, when I began to write this blog, I saw events that I tell about as "mosaic" pieces in a larger picture of life. Then, more recently, as I think about things I've long wanted to do and finally am actually doing them - like learning pottery - I feel I'm filling in missing pieces in the "jigsaw puzzle" of my life.

Life can be seen as a jigsaw in another way, too. In the preface of her book, St.  Benedict's Toolbox, Jane Tomaine. writes:

Ever since I was a child, one of my favorite pastimes is working on jigsaw puzzles. As I find each piece and fit it into place, a beautiful scene begins to take shape... How like a jigsaw puzzle is the work of God in our lives! Like the pieces of a puzzle, God places the seemingly disparate pieces of our lives into a picture that, for a time, only God knows. All along the way, through the circumstances of our lives and the choices we must make, God says to us, "Here, my child, take this piece; place it here. Now this piece"... until some form or pattern begins to emerge that we can see. 

The jigsaw puzzle image is an interesting one for me at this stage of life. Many "pieces" are already in place - put together by us... and by God! But spaces still remain...

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