Sacred Connections: Puzzling
With all of the tumult in our world today, I find myself taking moments of refuge in jigsaw puzzles. I’ve always loved jigsaw puzzles. There’s a beauty to them, and a challenge. Some of us have strategies as to how we begin, perhaps starting with the border or a distinctive color. Some have rules about whether we can look at the picture while we’re solving it or not. On the latter, I’m of a mind to use what helps, while my son firmly sets the box top image aside.
Puzzles offer a bit of a universal language and require no high-tech expertise, so they are easily shared. Some Church of the Redeemer Neighborhood groups are passing along puzzles, others are simply shared among neighbors, family and friends. Puzzles are intergenerational, and very safe ground. Simply working together to complete a puzzle is a pretty peaceful pastime. Just the act of being engaged with others with a common purpose creates space for other conversations as well.
I have a memory from several years ago, of my sister, brother and I working together on a jigsaw puzzle at my sister’s home in Florida. There were so many significant differences among us, on political issues, cultural views, life choices, values, religion. We would marvel, “How did we come from the same family?” But we could puzzle together. We could help each other find the piece or the color being sought. And in that simpler space with a clear picture of what we were trying to create together, we could share stories, experiences, pieces of our own lives. My brother passed on six months ago, and my sister moved from her home three months ago. It was just putting together a puzzle, but looking back now, it was also sacred time.
These days, many of us are still feeling concern and discomfort over the corona virus, we’re still experiencing disruption of our lives and the lives of those dear to us. Many of us may be struggling with the whole range of responses we see to this situation, and that can add to our dis-ease. Many are also moved by the challenges confronting our communities, and long to live into the vows of our baptismal covenant: Seek to serve Christ in all persons, love our neighbors as ourselves, strive for justice and peace among all people, respect the dignity of every human being.
When there doesn’t seem to be a clear picture for us to look at, and we don’t know where all the pieces go, and it is challenging indeed, we might consider the experience of playing with puzzles. Usually we can trust that all of the pieces are there, we just need to find a way to begin. We have faith that all the pieces will fit, and we simply need to find each one’s unique place. And sometimes a “missing piece” isn’t missing at all, it just doesn’t look like what we expected. When we let go of our limiting assumptions, we may find what we’re searching for right before our eyes.
