Connecting the dots. It’s easy to connect the dots in a coloring book. Simply follow the numbers and the image is revealed. It could be a sailboat. Or a dog. It’s so easy any 6 year old can tackle the assignment.
The trail of this metaphor reveals something more. It’s the big picture of life. It’s sort of like putting together two puzzle pieces – they only fit perfectly in one specific way. It’s like finding your purpose.
The irony here is that while we can easily connect the dots in the coloring book, the idea is more complicated when trying to figure out the future here on earth. In real life, the dots can only be connected after the fact. It happens in real time.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.†Steve Jobs
How do we get there?
Well, like Jobs said, you have to trust in something. Where should we place our trust?
It’s amazing to me how God opens and closes doors in our lives. Sometimes this seems to coincide… like it’s out of our control, but perfection. When we connect the dots things happen in sequence. There’s truth to that: many times when we’re hanging on to the wrong thing we can’t move forward. It’s only when we let go that God’s plan proceeds.
The end product of connect the dots is an image revealed. To me, today, that doesn’t look like what I anticipated. It’s better than I would have ever imagined.
But what if the story ends before the image is complete?
Ha! That’s where the metaphor differs from the coloring book.
If it’s dinner time and the child is called away from the puzzle before completing it, the image is truly incomplete.
It’s God’s timing that matters in real time. So if we trust in Him, the image is completed. Perfectly, every time. The answer to connecting the dots for us lies in the present…
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”
That’s connecting the dots in real time. Through God, and for His purpose.
