Every once in a while, a Puzzler’s Corner is truly about puzzles. Late last year, I learned that COSTCO is selling the largest manufactured puzzle. It is 60,000 pieces and comes in 60 bags of 1,000 pieces. The puzzle image is a map of the world.
I have discussed this puzzle with friends, some who also do very large puzzles and some who think working a jigsaw puzzle is more torture than hobby. It is not on my list of puzzles to purchase, mostly because I am not fond of the image.
I have several puzzles in excess of 30,000 pieces, and though I really don’t look for others, once in a while an image will catch my eye. This is true of the puzzle called Travel Around Art. It is a 54,000-piece puzzle manufactured by Grafika, a German puzzle company. I have been monitoring whether this puzzle is available in the U. S. for about 18 months. It is not. Just before Christmas, I ordered the puzzle. Over the past several weeks I tracked its journey from Germany to my home.
The puzzle arrived last Friday. The box was heavier than I anticipated and it took a lot of maneuvering to get it into the house. When I opened the box, I was surprised to see a suitcase and not a box with the image of the puzzle on the outside. After I slid the suitcase out of the box, I opened it to reveal 27 numbered bags of puzzle pieces, a poster and 27 pictures, one for each bag.
Later, I found the story on the internet about why this puzzle was shipped in a suitcase. The puzzle first came out in 2020, and as part of the promotion, it was packaged in a suitcase to encourage people to travel around the world to view the actual paintings in the puzzle. Unfortunately, with COVID appearing at about the same time, the unique sales pitch for this puzzle was lost.
I am not sure if I would travel the world to visit museums and view each of these paintings. Over the next few years, I would like to continue visiting holy places throughout the world. I have made the pilgrimage to Israel twice and may go a third time. I’d also like to visit the places where Paul spread the Good News of our Lord and Savior and see the land of Egypt which was home to Abraham’s descendants for 400 years. When I was much younger, my family went to the shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre, which is north of Quebec City. If the weather agrees, I’d like to travel back to Quebec and make the journey up the mountain where this shrine is. I want to go to Lourdes and learn more about St. Bernadette and spend some time in England to experience the homeland of John and Charles Wesley.
And now, I have a new suitcase for my journeys! As we continue to discover what it means to be God’s instruments in and for the world, I hope that we can travel to places to share with others what it means to be blessed by God. Whether you travel as far as the Holy Land, or as close as your local grocery store, I invite and encourage you to share how God continues to touch and shape our lives each and every day.
Below is the poster for the puzzle, along with pictures of the suitcase it arrived in. And Amen
