Puzzle Pieces

I just came across an analogy in Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology that puts to words something I have been thinking about for the last few years. Upon a first reading, the Bible can appear so mysterious and opaque to understanding. Kings and kingdoms and sacrifices and law and churches and revelations and songs and proverbs and judgment and anger and joy and brutality and grace and...how does this all fit together? How am I supposed to understand it all?
Well, Grudem compares studying the Bible and theology to putting together a jigsaw puzzle: "The more pieces one has in place correctly to begin with, the easier it is to fit new pieces in, and the less apt one is to make mistakes." This so clearly illustrates some of my frustrations and conclusions in studying the Bible in the past. At times it has been as though I have studied a single piece of a puzzle, knowing all its colors and shapes, but I have no idea where it goes. I have to put it to the side and keep working on the rest of the puzzle keeping in mind I have one piece on the side with certain colors and shapes. Eventually the puzzle fills in enough that I know where that piece should go. But at the start I had no idea. It took time and further work to figure it out.
So too it goes with Bible study. As I learn more of the Old Testament, ideas in the New become clearer. As I study one passage the light goes on in another. There is no way I could understand certain passages the first time I read them. But as I work through the Bible again and again, I pick up new things each time and begin to see how it all fits together. I view this as God's amazing wisdom in putting together a book that fits together so well and so precisely.
I look forward to working on this puzzle the rest of my life.