Connecting Dots

Several years ago my youngest son coined a useful term that has been the source of much laughter in our house.  We were having sandwiches for dinner one night, and he had made himself a turkey sandwich from the platter of assorted deli meats.  We didn’t do that often, so that might have been the first time he had been presented with lunch meat for dinner.  After his first sandwich, he asked, “Can you pass the…um…um…rooster?”

He knew he had eaten the meat of some sort of fowl and that it wasn’t chicken.  Hmm…maybe it’s rooster?   Now if anyone in our family makes a close but inaccurate connection, we point and shout, “Rooster!”

Our minds make some funny connections.  On the other hand, we are capable of making brilliant connections.  The Hungarian doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis, who associated the incidence of infection in mothers who had just given birth to the transmission of germs from one patient to another on a physician’s unwashed hands, made a profoundly helpful connection.  Apparently, no one had noticed that before.

For a refresher course on the human passion for making connections, watch a six-month-old make the connection between shaking a toy and the sound it makes or observe that by crying he will attract his mom’s attention. Young children wake up every day to explore and learn and try new things.  Sometimes they end up with roosters, but most of the time they learn the truth of how the world around them works.

The world is a playground for our exploration.  There are endless connections to be made in the physical realm and in the relational realm. They are thrilling and significant.  Ultimately, however, the world and all that is in it waiting to be discovered were designed to help us make one very important connection to its Designer.

I love to connect the dots mentally and relationally.  I love new ideas, “ah ha” moments, and evidence of the character and work of God all around me.   I hope you’ll join me connect some dots.  We may end up laughing over some “roosters,” but more often I trust we will discover valuable connections.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”  Psalm 19:1-4