Finding Our Perfect Puzzle
January 3, 2009 
Recently in a discussion with some friends, the mention of coming from different religious backgrounds came up. One woman explained how she had been raised in a community of sincere, moral members of a certain religion. She went on to say that she had never quite felt as if that belief system was the one for her. She hadn't quite fit.
Someone else replied that it wasn't "right." The young woman and I both responded that, no, it wasn't that the religion wasn't right. Rather it wasn't the appropriate belief system for the woman. With that an analogy came to me.
The religions and faith traditions and ethical teachings are like beautiful jigsaw puzzles. Like a missing piece from the puzzle, people come along and naturally walk up to the puzzle their parents belong to. These new people see their place in the puzzle and easily move into it. Previously, their parents had stood gazing at the same puzzle and had likewise immediately seen where their place in it was. Odds are it was a place close to their parents.
But sometimes, people come along and just don't fit into that puzzle. They try. They go to one place where a piece is missing and move around, trying some way to fit. But they don't. They try another empty spot and another and another. But nowhere do they find the empty place where they effortlessly slide into and fill their space perfectly.
There is nothing wrong with the puzzle.
Neither is there anything wrong with the individual.
Both are perfect. They just don't fit together.
And so people can spend years trying first this puzzle and then that one, looking for that space they fit in. All the puzzles are beautiful. There is nothing wrong with them. The fit just isn't there. So it's on to another puzzle.
Then, imagine the person, now feeling very much like a lone puzzle piece walks up to yet another puzzle, sees yet another empty place, walks up to it thinking "Here I go again," sighs and tries to settle in and realises "Wow, I may fit here!" And gradually, not daring to hope, the realization slowly dawns that this time, finally, the fit is right.
In a world of perfect puzzles, another piece has found its place.
Reader Comments (1)
Amituofo,