Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech. (Genesis 11: 4-7 NRSV)
I have confessed in this space before that I am an inveterate puzzler. I love to put together puzzles. I enjoy the challenge and I like to watch the picture come together and have meaning.
Last year, I asked for puzzles for Christmas. I had doubts, though, about one of them that I had admired in a catalog. It was a five thousand piece puzzle and in its cardboard box weighed six pounds (!), which was daunting enough, but it was the picture itself that caused me to have second thoughts.
It was a picture of the Tower of Babel. And, I thought, if it was chutzpah for those long-ago folks to try to build the Tower of Babel, is it also chutzpah for a modern woman to put together a puzzle of the Tower of Babel?
You see my dilemma!
I have been busy with other puzzles (and with more important tasks!) since Christmas, and only this week brought out the Tower of Babel. Now, I have decided that working this puzzle is not going to harm me or my mortal soul!