We worked off and on for a week. We looked for a small feature or shape or subtle change in color. The pieces covered most of our dining room table.
Of course, the wife and I were putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The motif of this series of puzzles concerns murder mysteries. This one was a Sherlock Holmes story. You read the story. It ends just before the detective solves the mystery. You solve the mystery which tells you the scene of which the puzzle is a picture. There is no picture to guide you. You figure it out as you go.
Now it’s complete. Seeing the complete picture brings all the elements together. Seeing the whole, you almost forget all the little parts.
Studying a difficult text is a similar endeavor.
I read the words of the Apostle Paul, for example, for years. Words. Sentences. Even paragraphs (in English, since there was not such a thing in Greek).
Then I read 1,800 pages of scholarly research getting into the debate among scholars of the meanings of Greek words and themes. Somehow the scholar was one of those writers who could go from the detail to the theme.
What a difference in interpretation when you begin to see the whole picture and then go back to the parts finding where they each fit in the big picture.
We call it getting lost in the weeds. You must get out of the weeds to see the entire landscape. Same with study. Don’t get lost in the weeds. You’ll lose your way and miss the picture.
Faith Venture 
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