When you are doing a jigsaw puzzle, do you think of it as a lot of unrelated little bits that somehow have to be fitted together? Or are you watching with interest all the time to see the complete picture appearing? In this latter way the bits go together much more readily, because you are quite sure they belong together. Each bit obviously needs the others, and the picture needs them all.

I once had a resourceful friend whose little girl was having a Christmas party. A strike had prevented the Christmas toys from being delivered in time that year; so the mother tore some pictures out of a magazine, stuck them on pasteboard, and cut them into jigsaw puzzles for the children. Prettily packaged, they did the job perfectly.

This was quite a new angle on jigsaws for me. Starting with the picture made it all so much easier. I began to apply this rule to a lot of other things too. Our own lives sometimes seem to be fragmented, disjointed, and incomplete—rather like a jigsaw. We have some of the bits, but they don't seem to fit. And other bits appear to be missing altogether.

So we tend to accept incompleteness as inevitable, explain our deficiencies and misfits, justify them, deplore them, apologize for them. Yet all the time the complete picture is there, waiting to be recognized and brought to light—complete, spiritual man. Christian Science reveals man as the infinite idea of infinite Mind, the eternally whole expression of his Father-Mother God. So fragmentation isn't either natural or inevitable for us. Completeness being the hallmark of true, spiritual creation, it can be demonstrated in present existence.

In her interpretation of the Bible's first account of creation, Mrs. Eddy begins the explanation of Genesis 2:1 in this way: "Thus the ideas of God in universal being are complete and forever expressed, for Science reveals infinity and the fatherhood and motherhood of Love." ^{Science and Health, p. 519.} It helps to take a long, hard look at this picture of the completeness of creation before we start assembling the pieces of our own individual expression of it on the human scene.

Spiritual completeness isn't just a beautiful theory. It's continually expressed in very practical and palpable ways. And this expression is what Christian Science calls demonstration—demonstration of true selfhood. As God's highest idea, man is provided with the whole range of qualities implied in the fatherhood and motherhood of Love: wisdom, spiritual strength, tenderness, spiritual discernment. Are we claiming these qualities and building them all into our daily lives? And do we use them in proper balance? Or do we find some unused at the end of the day—especially the less conspicuous ones like patience and gentleness?

And what about our spiritual faculties and functions? Are we demonstrating them by seeing clearly, listening carefully, expressing ourselves articulately, working effectively? Expressing God isn't a "once off" exercise. It has to go on all the time if it is to witness the continuity of true being.

Christ Jesus had a clear sense of the completeness of man as the son of God, or idea of Mind. And he demonstrated this quality constantly. There was nothing too big or too small to serve as an illustration of man's spiritual completeness. The withered hand, the sightless eye, the wandering thought, were all restored to effective functioning.

Jesus assured his disciples, "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." ^{Matt. 10:30.} So you and I are much more than ephemeral material personalities with gaps and failings. And the demonstration of our spiritual completeness doesn't relate only to physique and temperament; it extends to all the activities and relationships of daily life. Home represents a complete spiritual idea. Business also represents a complete spiritual idea. Good relationships represent the complete integration of Love's universal family.

An individual lacking a home implies more than a homeless mortal. This situation would suggest that there is no room in the consciousness of divine Love for one of its ideas. An individual lacking a job means more than an unemployed mortal. This predicament would suggest that divine Love has provided no function for one of its ideas. An individual without friends represents more than a friendless mortal. This isolation would suggest that divine Love's care for its ideas is incomplete.

In the infinity of Love's all-embracing completeness all these suggestions of incompleteness are impossible. Substantiating this assertion may seem a formidable challenge if we start out from the standpoint of belief in fragmentation. But when we begin with an awareness of God's universe of ideas and the innate completeness of these ideas, it becomes a question of correcting misconceptions and then watching the healing results flowing from corrected thought.

Our knowledge of man's spiritual completeness acts as a coordinating, synchronizing, unifying force in our lives. It helps to bring together whoever and whatever are needed to resolve any trying situation, whether it is an international incident, a personal predicament, or a children's party game.