Do you ever think of life as a puzzle? I know I sometimes do. Like one of those puzzles where you have to connect the dots to be able to see the picture clearly. When I was a kid, I liked to complete dot to dot puzzles. I especially liked the puzzles that had all the dots numbered. It was a no-brainer to connect the dot labeled #1 to the dot labeled #2 and so on. When I finished one of those puzzles, I kind of felt like I was cheating because all the numbered dots made the puzzles so easy to finish. And, what about those puzzles that even showed part of the picture to give you a hint? Talk about making things even easier, numbered dots and parts of the missing picture already filled in. Those were my very favorite because they could be done even faster without having to wait!
I really wish that life was like one of those easy puzzles with numbered dots. Each circumstance in our life representing a dot that needs to be connected to the next. If each circumstance came with a number, we could then see how to connect it to the next circumstance in order to draw the big picture. How nice it would be if we could see events from the past and how those events should have been numbered in order to make sense of them? If we could look at our lives and see “the big picture” as we were connecting each dot.
I believe that each person’s life is more similar to a huge dot puzzle than we realize. We all know where to begin because dot number one is when we were born. All other dots on the page are single events and circumstances that happen throughout our lifetime, but there are no other numbers and no partial picture clues to help us out. Sometimes we may see exactly how one dot connects to another to form, what looks like to us, part of a picture. More often than not, we see random dots that have no relationship at all. Random lines connecting random dots that represent all kinds of emotions and outcomes. Those emotions can even cause us to focus solely on one particular dot losing sight of the bigger picture.
Sometimes, speaking for myself here, I get even mad at the puzzle maker. I get mad that my dots appear to be scattered all over the place while other people seem to have puzzles that are simple to follow and not so complex. I have cried out, “Why did I have to get a hard puzzle? It’s just not fair! I need numbers. I need directions. I need to see the big picture right now!” But all my whining and crying will not make the puzzle get finished faster. It takes perseverance, time, and patience. Things that are no fun to think about when you want to see the end result of a complicated puzzle. We all want the whole picture and to be able to say, “I see exactly how this dot and that dot made a specific design in the bigger picture.” Having to wait to see what picture your dots will make is excruciating, it’s frustrating, it’s time consuming, but we have to believe that it’s also worth it.
Once and a while I get a tiny glimpse of how two events in my life are related, or I can trace a series of events and see how God used those events to bring about something good. It gives me much needed hope when this happens. That hope pushes me to look past trials and bad circumstances, and to not give up on believing that each event is just a dot that forms an important part of the whole amazing picture.
There are a few dots that God has allowed me to connect related to Holt’s life. Dots that alone seemed insignificant but now I can see how those individual dots all came together to form an intricate pattern in the picture of our family. I have no doubt that God has used events in Holt’s life to connect dots in the lives of others, too. After all, the events in one person’s life can greatly influence the lives of others. One person’s dots can affect another’s final picture in a beautiful way.
There is going to come a day that I will share some of my connected dots with you related to Holt. For now, just know that I feel the same stress that you do as you try to figure out what your life picture is going to look like. Remember, every dot has a purpose, even the painful ones, and in the end they can all connect together to make something amazing.
