All the pieces are in place

Some time ago we received a jigsaw puzzle as a gift. The picture was so pretty that one felt it really must be worked on, so we began on the first pieces with much enthusiasm. But as we went along, it became harder.

The picture was beginning to look like the cover on the box, so colorful and lovely, but where did the next piece fit? And the next? Finding the right spot for each one was becoming more difficult. Still, we had started right, and we would persist, because we were learning as we went along. With much thought and determination we completed the puzzle, and found ourselves looking at its complete and beautiful perfection.

That puzzle box picture has become a meaningful metaphor for me. When seen from a spiritual standpoint, our lives are complete, just as the picture on a puzzle box is complete. But sometimes the scattered pieces keep us from seeing the wholeness that God gives us.

What brings it all together for me is the Bible. This book is an ever-helpful guide to solving the puzzle of life. Through the lives it describes and the truths it provides, the Bible gives us a inspiring picture to guide our efforts each day. Keeping our thoughts on perfection and love helps us to perceive our individual spiritual nature, already complete, just waiting to be discovered. This spiritual focus enables us to see completeness and perfection emerge in our own lives.

And where does perfection come from? The first words in the book of Genesis tell us: “In the beginning God ....” That first chapter ends with this statement: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Everything God made was perfect, good, and beautiful. And that includes every aspect of our being. So the source of our goodness and life is God, not in scattered material elements.

In many languages, the word used for God also means good. As we begin with God in our lives, we are realizing good as filling all space, as complete. Nothing can disturb the peace, impair the happiness, or destroy the perfection of our being and beauty, when we realize that these are spiritual, created by God.

All through the Bible good prevails over evil. In the Old Testament, the prophets often had to prove the superior power of good when they were faced with danger. They did this by acknowledging the love of God protecting them and keeping them safe and well. This was so with Moses and all the prophets, and it is true for our own lives also.

Psalm 91 promises distinctly, “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” This is as true today as it was when the Psalm was written. And as we rely on the Bible to guide us, we can also trust that God will keep us “in perfect peace” when our thought is set on Him.

Mentally walking through the pages of this wonderful Book of Life, we find that each chapter has something to tell us. The book of Isaiah promises,”And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” This wonderful prophecy, together with a verse from Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament—“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me”—leads us into the New Testament.

Matthew’s Gospel links to the Old Testament by showing us all the generations from Abraham to Jesus himself. Yet more and more our spiritual relation to God is brought out through Jesus’ teachings, examples, and most of all his healing work. And this teaching is something we can always rely on. As the book of Hebrews puts it, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” Complete. The Christ that Jesus represented through his healing and teaching has always been here and always wll be.

For some people, the Bible has been a difficult book to study. But Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, casts the bright light of understanding on the Scriptures. Through it, we can completely embrace the truths of divine Life, or God. These truths reveal the progressive unfolding of our total perfection as God’s man, both male and female.

In Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy explained, “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man,who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals.” To accept this truth into our lives involves a change of thought from the material view of existence to the spiritual. It offers us a completely new life, full of beauty and perfection. And when we fully rely on the one God, as the prophets, Jesus, and the disciples did, we will find the beautiful picture of Life as God gives it, with all the pieces in place. Complete.

Guidance for living:

Science and Health
476:32-2

King James Bible
Gen. 1:1  
Gen. 1:31  
Ps. 91:10  
Isa. 26:3  
Isa. 11:1  
Mal. 3:1  
Matt. 1:1-17  
Heb. 13:8