“There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world.  It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.”

— Henry Van Dyke

We all should aspire to reach the highest level we are capable of achieving.  It is certainly true that the world needs all that we have to offer.  We are like the separate pieces of a huge jigsaw puzzle, each with a unique shape and color that is unmatched by any other person.  Without our unique contribution, there will always be an empty space in the big picture; and it is only right that we contribute the talents, the ideas, the colors we have been given to making the picture complete.

When I was a girl, our family spent many winter days assembling jigsaw puzzles.  Some of us were more involved than others; but with a group effort, we managed to discover what the picture was by assembling the separate pieces.  We had rules about not looking at the box, so by the time we finished a puzzle with a thousand pieces we often found that we really were surprised to see the picture we had created.  There was a great sense of satisfaction in being the one who added the final piece to the picture and brought it to completion.  My brother, who had less patience for working puzzles than some of us, sometimes would slip a piece into his pocket and show up at the last second to be the one who put the last piece in place.  He liked that feeling of importance, I guess, and it really separated him from the process we had developed to do a mutual task.

Life can be very much like that puzzling scenario.  We start out with an idea of what the final picture might be.  We bring together thousands of pieces, thousands of contributions from thousands of people; and when the final piece is added, I’m sure we will be surprised to see the picture we have created.

It would be an incredible feeling to have our own contribution be the one that causes all the fanfare and signals the completion of the picture of life; but I think there is other work to be done than simply being the best puzzle pieces we can be.  There is work to be done that brings together all the various and varied components of humanity and encouraging each one to bring whatever will benefit us all.  It is the assembly of the big picture, not only the piece that completes it that must be our task.  When we lift others, we also elevate our own efforts, and the final result can be both surprising and beautiful.