“I have no desire
To disparage this world.
The older I am the more I can see
How precious it is to You.
You have set it before us
For a purpose. You have laid it out
Like a jigsaw puzzle to which
The box has been lost. But the pieces
Are so colorful we children cannot help
but pick them up and start to play.
Painstakingly, we put one piece together
With another.
The puzzle is huge.
Eventually it dawns on us
We will never begin to have enough time
To complete it. This may be
A moment for despair, tempting us
To discard You. You are so much larger than us.
Yet, if we are alert, there are other
Lessons to be learned. In fact,
The puzzle is so huge it is amazing
We can put one piece together with another
At all. It seems almost
Pure luck, save that it happens so frequently
We sense our hands and eyes have been guided
By an instinct we cannot explain. Who
Has not had the experience? Then
Those few pieces put together
Offer us tiny glimpses of the whole
And it looks beautiful … designedly enticing. Finally,
We find in those few attached fragments occasional
Cryptic messages. Once I interdigitated
Pieces that fit into a strange sign.
It was in French and read:
‘Aimez-vous les Uns les Autres.’ (love one another)
Do with this what you will.
I myself have chosen, by Your grace,
To see it as something more
Than a childish game. And some soon day
I imagine I may even see
The picture on the box, or,
Led deeper into Your mystery,
Be handed a jigsaw or else,
As a trembling apprentice,
Even a paintbrush.
In the meantime
Thank you for letting me know
That it is You
Who are the name of the game.”
The Road Less Traveled And Beyond – Spiritual Growth In An Age Of Anxiety, M. Scott Peck, M.D., Pgs. 304 – 306.
