The Whole Picture

I've looked at the same picture many times.  In fact, many times daily for many days.  I never totally understood it, and I didn't much like it.  I don't mean I disliked it, I just sort of felt nothing about it, other than a bit of confusion. I thought I knew what it was meant to be and I didn't think it was a very good illustration of it.

This morning I saw the entire picture.  I'd been seeing it cropped - just the middle of it.  It suddenly made perfect sense.  I like it very much.

Well, isn't that the way of it?  Life, I mean.  I see a bit of it here, a bit of it there, and it doesn't always make sense to me.  But if I were a betting man, I'd bet the farm that at the end of life - this physical part of life, I mean - that it's all going to make perfect sense.

It's sort of like doing a jigsaw puzzle without looking at the picture on the box.  It's nearly impossible to figure out the whole picture until you get all the pieces put together, and it's not very easy.  You may think it's going to be an old covered bridge in the woods at one point.  A few more pieces put in, and you may be sure it's a lighthouse.  Sure, you've got the corners and the smooth edges, but when it gets into the thick of it, it's a bit of a blur.

Should you try to match the pieces according to color, to lines, to shapes?  Sometimes you may feel like taking a mat knife or a hammer to a puzzle piece to make it fit where you think it should go.  That won't work.

I love a good mystery.  I love a great adventure.  I look forward to seeing the whole picture, but right now, I'm enjoying putting the puzzle together.