June 29 Martha's Musings

For many years now, I have enjoyed jigsaw puzzles. Recently, I have been working on 3-D wooden-piece puzzles, which can be quite challenging. To start with, most of them do not have a border. The puzzle itself is the shape of a turtle, cocker spaniel, Christmas tree etc., the un-framed version of what you are putting together. The individual pieces can be quite small, and include shapes of actual things, like cats, dogs, and houses, instead of the regular puzzle shapes. Thus, they are put together by aligning the colors, more so than the sides, and hook-in or just lay adjacent to one another. I found them tricky at first, but now I enjoy the challenge. Recently, as I walked over to work on my current puzzle and stared at it from above, in a standing position, I noticed connections that I had not seen while working on it sitting down. The angle of looking at it from above gave me a clearer picture than the one I received looking at it flat, while sitting down. If you have ever looked out the window of a plane to see the sights below, you will have some concept of what I am referring to. Your entire perspective changes. The pieces were no longer a bit of a jumbled mess. Rather, I could now see more clearly how certain parts were to connect. I could not help but think of how God above looks down at us and sees us so much better than we see ourselves. It helped me understand a little better the fact that God sees the “big picture” of our world. We are not flat pieces lying around needing placement; we are part of a big, beautiful world, but are stuck seeing only what is near to us. The rest of humanity is out there, somewhere, but our view is limited to the area closest to us. God is not hindered by any such limitations. What He sees is infinitely more interesting and amazing than what we see, which is as it should be. Our job is two-fold. First, to do our very best to clarify the images before us, so that our vision of God’s world is not skewed. And second, to calmly leave what we cannot see or understand in the capable hands of Our Creator.

Blessings,
Martha Arizpe, Chair of St. John’s Prayer Team