For Christmas this year, I was gifted with a jigsaw puzzle. That generous gift has drawn me into a new sort of hobby, one in which I have discovered the beauty of mindfulness that comes with doing things repetitively.

Soon after Christmas, I was putting together a puzzle. It was a serene winter scene: a gingerbread house surrounded by snow. After I had completed the puzzle, though, my son looked at the picture and asked, “What is that guy doing on the roof?”

I had no idea what he was talking about.

“What guy?” I asked. I looked at what he was seeing, and sure enough, on the roof of the gingerbread house was a tiny gingerbread man who looked like he was sneaking down the chimney. I studied the scene. There were tiny little gingerbread people all over the scene engaged in all sorts of mischief: playing baseball, cooking, and throwing snowballs. This wasn’t simply a picture of a gingerbread house; this was a picture of gingerbread shenanigans! Because I had been focused on each individual piece, I had missed what was going on in the larger picture and didn’t really even bother to pay attention to it.

On Sunday, February 22, the First Sunday of Lent, many of us read the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. Each time the devil tempts him and Jesus resists, it’s as if Jesus puts one more piece of the puzzle together. The problem is resisting hunger? Check. Resisting prestige? Check. Power? Check. There in the wilderness, the puzzle is coming together. But Jesus also understands the larger picture. He knows that each of these pieces creates the picture of a God who is determined to love God’s people and to save them from themselves. Jesus can see how and why it all fits together.

Sometimes, I think we fail to see the larger picture, especially at times when the world seems so divided, when our budgets feel stretched too thin, and when our time and energy feel zapped. It becomes easy to ask: “Why are we doing this?” But Jesus reminds us of the bigger picture. We do this because God calls us—as the Church—to do it and because the Gospel of Jesus redeems and transforms the world.

When we gather for NC Synod Council meetings, which we will do this month, we begin those meetings by reminding ourselves of the big picture when we recite our purpose statement: “God calls the NC Synod of the ELCA to…cultivate and celebrate vital congregations; identify, equip, and nurture whole and healthy leaders; embrace and engage in collaboration; and proclaim the promise of the resurrection with a prophetic voice. . . all for the sake of the world.”

That purpose statement is our big picture. Every smaller piece we do contributes to the whole, and sometimes we need to step back a bit so we can see—and be reminded of—our larger purpose.

I pray that this season of Lent becomes a time when you can do that—a time when you are reminded that every piece of work we do is a part of God’s work for the sake of the world.

Blessings on your Lenten season as you grasp our larger purpose and hear the story, once again, of God’s redeeming love.