Dot to dot

When I was in grade school, I loved to color. I also enjoyed completing word find puzzles. I still work word finds the same.  I search through every line up and down, column by column until I find a word.  Circling a sought after word and marking it off of the word bank is very satisfying.  Crosswords proved to be more challenging, and still are.  Dot to Dots are my all-time favorite. 

When a dot to dot starts to transpire into what it is meant to be, it is phenomenal.  Maybe the dot to dot process is somewhat like the caterpillar to butterfly process; however, scientific transformations are not my focus this week.   

When you begin a dot to dot, you place your pencil carefully on the first dot and draw a line to the next one and so on.  You continue this tedious process without really knowing what you will end up with.  You trust that the dots will connect and form something, but the something is unknown until what is on paper makes a connection with something in your mind. 

When the “something” appears out of nothing, you feel silly that you did not recognize it in the first place.  It requires going dot by dot, step by step, and staying in order.  You sure can use up a good eraser on a dot to dot if you are not careful.

This week I witnessed a real-life “dot to dot.”  When Hurricane Harvey hit our neighbors down south, many of them came this way for shelter. One family in particular sucked me in right off of the bat. I have mentioned them before.

Julie, her three small children, parents, and big dogs stayed at the LaQuinta.  I wondered the first time I saw her Dad wearing a Fairfield Eagle shirt if he was a volunteer or an evacuee.

After meeting Julie and coloring with her kids, I connected the dots and loved them.  Fairfield coaches donated a slew of Eagle shirts to the local hotels.  Her Dad was not an Eagle, but he soon became an Eagle because we helped them.  It suddenly all made sense.

Julie saw a Facebook post back in January about us selling shirts to benefit a Fairfield teacher battling cancer.  The shirts said “Fairfield Eagles…Fearless, faith, and family.”  She immediately placed an order.  She said she had to support the wonderful community that supported her.

When I mailed Julie the shirts, it clicked with me. I saw such a beautiful dot to dot that God had perfectly created.  Julie had never met Mrs. J.  They were total strangers, but God worked in Julie’s life through total strangers here in Fairfield.  Strangers in our community fed her, clothed her, and even paid for her hotel rooms.  Our community started the dot to dot.  Julie in turn connected the next dot and donated money to a cancer patient here in our town. 

Only the LORD can connect dots between total strangers.  Juile and her family in West Columbia will proudly wear their new Eagle shirts.  Mrs. J. benefited from the profits of the t-shirt drive.  I received a gigantic dose of encouragement from recognizing what God orchestrated. 

Be encouraged this week.  The world seems to be falling apart, but there is hope.  Hope can be found in the pages of your Bible.  Isaiah 41:18-19 says “I will open rivers on the bare heights and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and dry land a fountains of water.”